I Followed Her, and She Led Me to You
by Daisy996
Summary: All beings that roam this Earth are simply a soul that inhabits a body. All souls have an equal, a soul mate they can find so what happens when Jasper meets Alice and she tells him that together they will find their soul mates, and his soul mate happens to be a human, Bella Swan. No Alice or Edward hate, no Alice/Edward pairing, all other pairings canon, other than Jasper/Bella
1. Chapter 1

**I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You**

**A.N.: **This is a little plot that entered my head after I read a whole heap of Jasper/Bella fics in the past month but became really annoyed with how most of them happened. I only read one or two really good ones where Alice wasn't trying to kill Bella, or had cheated on Jasper, or anything else that seemed really out of character of her, or where Edward wasn't the world's biggest douche-canoe or had an Alice/Edward pairing. I just find that weird, and I don't particularly like reading it. I read one where it started as a Jasper/Alice story and then mystic soul mate stuff happened and there was Jasper/Bella, but while I liked this in theory (and have that sort of thing happen here) there were other aspects of the story I didn't enjoy. So here is my version of what would happen if Jasper/Bella was a thing.

No Alice hate, very little Edward hate, and a story of true soul mates.

Starts as Twilight in Jasper's POV, but with a few key differences and leads to Jasper/Bella.

Sorry for the long note.

Xx

**Preface**

All beings that roam the Earth are simply a soul that possess a body. Not all souls are equal, and in a similar way not all bodies are equal. Some souls are capable of extreme evil, and others not. Some souls are raised in a way that they commit grievous wrong doings and yet never turn truly evil because they are capable of remorse and repair for their wrong doings. The evil souls are always evil as there is no remorse and these beings are often the worst of the criminals that have no value for life, no matter the species of the body.

But all souls have one true equal. Some are lucky enough to meet them in their time on the Earth, and others not. The truly good souls will meet their match, the evil ones will never. A good soul has a soul mate and will love this soul mate above all other souls on this Earth although the love comes in different forms. A soul mate may be a soul's child they will care for above all else, it may be the closest of friends that can never be parted, or twins who almost share one soul between two bodies, or the most famous of soul mates; the most perfect of lovers. These soul mates are the rarest, but the bond is something that can never be denied or ignored or defeated.

Two souls may be in possession of bodies that are not equal, but these two souls will both be aware of their equal, even if one is aware sooner or more acutely than the other, and these souls in unequal bodies will search for a way in which to become truly equal so nothing can separate them. If these souls ever accomplish this they will become inseparable- not in the way that the two bodies can never be apart- but in the way that nothing can ever come between the souls. A union of such strength would be truly unbreakable for all eternity, the souls remaining together even after the death of the body. For that is all that death is; the destruction of the vessel the soul resides in, a soul continues forever as a force that can remain indefinitely, in memories, objects left behind from the life of the body, or after seeking out a new body and continuing life although these souls may again need to begin the search for their soul mate.

**Chapter 1**

"….so lucky I found you…"

"Wouldn't want to be without you!"

"I thought I would end up alone."

Yeah, fuck off thank you very much. You humans are pathetic. Always worried about being alone when you really didn't know what being alone truly felt like. I had been alone since I was changed in 1863. Eighty five fucking years of loneliness. Of course I wasn't physically alone, there was always someone there, usually Maria, but I never made emotional connections with other vampires.

Except Peter that is. He was like a bother to me after he was changed half a century after I was, he was an ex-soldier to, from the First World War, and drafted into a new war we wanted nothing to do with but were told it was how life was for us now. We were naïve enough to think that was the only life. Of course I liked to have him around, but it wasn't right, or not what I needed rather. My inner animal was seeking something else. A mate. My soul mate. Supposedly all vampires had them, they just needed to find them.

I first got a taste for that kind of relationship when Peter ran away with Charlotte in 1933, and the brief instant I felt their emotions was like I saw the sun for the first time. I could name what I was searching for, yet I couldn't find it. It drew my attention to the dark depression I felt when I was around Maria and the armies of newborns. I couldn't find my mate but at least I knew what I was searching for now. When Peter and Charlotte came back for me in 1938, I was drawn to their emotions, it was like an addiction. And like an addiction it was unhealthy that I was so dependent on how others around me felt. I only stayed with my brother and the woman I came to love as a sister for about three years before I began life as a solitary nomad.

I kept sinking back into the uncontrollable depression I felt with Maria and it worsened with every human life I ended. I hated that I was ending all of these lives simply to prolong my own miserable existence. Yet I couldn't find it within myself to take matters into my own hands and actually end it. First I considered handing myself over to the Volturi and claiming I was responsible for so much carnage in the South, but I wasn't; not compared to any of the others, if anything I did the Volturi favours by destroying so many other fighters in the wars. Then I considered seeking out an old rival and egging them on until they attacked. But that wasn't how I wanted to die. Dead in a fight? Jasper Whitlock, killed in a fight? No, no one would believe it, I had a reputation after all. One time after a particularly bad night hunting where I forced someone to watch as I killed their loved one before turning on them I even lit a fire and nearly jumped in it. I was a coward though. Too scared to even set myself on fire. Too afraid of the pain.

So here I was, on a miserably rainy day in Philadelphia, hiding in the back of a diner to avoid attracting attention from standing out in the rain. It was safer in here because people wouldn't ask questions about what I was doing in the rain, but I hadn't fed in quite a few days and it was very dangerous for the people in here. One moment of misjudgement and I could snap, killing half of them before the other half even took another breath.

The door of the diner opened and blew a gust of wind straight into my face and out of reflex I took a deep breath. It was a natural reaction for a vampire, air moves around your face and you breathe it in to assess any potential threats or meals in the vicinity. As I continued my breath in, I smelt it. Vampire. My head snapped up too fast for in front of humans, and I looked to the entrance.

She was tiny, childlike, but obviously not an uncontrollable immortal child, and even more beautiful than any other woman I has seen in my life. Her short black hair was a spiky halo in the dim diner lights and her features were angelic as she approached me, her emotions calm and happy; assuring me she was not going to attack. Not that she would get far if she attacked me anyway.

"I've been waiting a long time for you." Her bell like voice carried towards me cutting through the dull human conversations about their pathetic ideas of loneliness.

Like a good, southern gentleman a bowed my head and replied, "I'm sorry for that ma'am." And she held her small, childlike hand out for me to take and I followed her out of the diner and into the rain I had been avoiding all morning.

I don't know what possessed me to trust her so much, I never trusted anyone so quickly. She could have lead me anywhere or to anyone and I would have probably happily followed her. I didn't think she was my mate, I could feel we had a connection, but not like the one I could feel between mated couples. Maybe that came later?

"We aren't mates, merely companions on a journey towards our family and eventually our mates." She told me as if answering my internal questions. Did I speak out loud? "No, you didn't ask me, but you unconsciously decided to which is why I saw it. I can see the future you know. Not all of it, and it changes frequently. But I see the current outcome of our current path."

If anyone else had told me that I would have called them crazy and left immediately before they could do anything crazy to me. But not this little pixie of a woman. I didn't even know her name yet and I already felt an immense amount of trust towards her.

"I'm Alice, by the way. Or at least that's who I think I am, I don't have any memories of my human life, but when I woke up I found a tiny little piece of ripped paper next to me that said 'Alice' so I assume it was some sort of ID." She spoke faster than anyone I'd ever met, human or vampire.

"It's lovely to meet you Alice, I'm Jasper Whitlock. I was-" she interrupted me.

"A major in the Confederate Army, and then an important player in the recent southern wars. I know, I saw this conversation." That was strange and I don't know if I entirely like having her know everything about me.

"So you have seen my past?"

"Of course not, I only see the future," She sounded a little exasperated as she explained this, as if I should already know. Although she did already tell me she saw the _future_, "I did see you telling me about your past though. You don't have to go through the pain of reliving it for me. Today is the beginning of your new forever, you never have to go back to that again."

I was so relieved I didn't need to tell her. She just knew and not only that but she knew of the toll it took on me and the pain I felt in reliving it. I was so happy and caught up in her positive attitude that I pulled her into a tight hug.

I hadn't felt a hug so full of love and positivity in my memory that the feelings nearly floored me.

"Come on soldier, I have an apartment nearby where we can get out of the rain and talk." So I followed her. First to her apartment, and later across the country over the next two years to find this illusive family she said we were a part of.

…..

By the time we caught up with them in Tennessee Alice and I knew everything there was to know about each other and she brought me out of my depressive shell to show me a new life. I admit the new diet was difficult, and I slipped more than a few times but every time I did she was there for me, comforting me, and helping me see what I needed to do in the future to avoid more mistakes. Each day we grew a little closer and a month after she found me in that diner I knew I had feelings for her, and she did for me as well.

Six months after Alice found me we were a couple, even if we both knew it was only temporary, we couldn't face the idea of not being together for now. Alice explained to me that she couldn't see our mates yet because when we met them they would be very young compared to us, and even their parents had yet to be born which left a lot of things up to chance, and people's decisions, at this point. And because our mates didn't yet exist there was no pull towards them leaving us free to be with whoever we wanted. And I wanted Alice. And Alice wanted me. It was another six months before I proposed to her on a whim to avoid her seeing it exactly. I didn't have a ring or anything, just words which I thought of as I said them, but I was thrilled when she accepted. I took her shopping for a ring later that day.

…

The Cullen family welcomed us with open arms once we proved why we were there which was easy after Edward and Emmett came home from hunting and Edward could read our minds. But we pissed Edward off a bit as Alice moved all of his things out of his room and put our stuff in there. Her reasoning was that he was the only single person in the family and therefore only needed the smallest room. Her real reason was his room had the best view and the largest closet. I had very quickly come to see Alice loved shopping and fashion. It was difficult at first to afford and we had to steal more than a few things, but a few smart investments later and we had more cash than we knew what to do with.

I was able to stick to the new 'vegetarian' diet, as everyone called it, once we settled in with the Cullen's. Part of it I suspect was my fear they would kick me out if I strayed, but after speaking to both Edward and Emmett about their pasts I knew they would only be disappointed but not angry. I suspect the real reason I was able to do so well with the diet was because they were all so supportive. No one hunted alone, generally, and this helped because if I wondered on to the path of some poor lost human I had other people helping me to resist the temptation. I still slipped a little, but I am happy to say that on a horribly overcast day, November the eighteenth 1950, I married Alice with light, golden eyes. That achievement really cemented in my brain that there was a reason I trying so hard to stick with this. I was doing it for Alice, and our future together and my future mate.

Our wedding was small, just us and the rest of the family, Peter and Charlotte, in a small church with the pastor. Alice wore the most elegant white gown I have ever seen, floor length and slim fitting with her shoulders bare and long lace sleeves covered in tiny clear beads and white pearls. She made the dress herself with the help of both Rosalie and Esmé as she couldn't find anything that matched her idea of perfection. Rosalie stood with her as her matron of honour, and Peter stood with me as my best man. I had bonded with both Edward and Emmett, but I was closer to Emmett as he was much more emotionally mature and not such a chore to be around as Edward. He was like an annoying little brother. But Peter was my first brother. Peter and I wore simple black suits and white shirts, matching except for his tie that was blue to match Rosalie's simple dress, while my tie was black. After the ceremony we returned home and danced, and took countless photos before everyone changed and we went on a celebratory hunt before I whisked Alice away for our honeymoon in a nearby cabin I had found. It wasn't the most luxurious place I could have taken her and I was worried it wouldn't be good enough for her, but it gave us privacy to be us and do whatever we wanted without worrying about people, whether vampire or human, finding us.

Marriage to Alice was bliss. I knew I was addicted to her emotions and the state of pure happiness that existed around her but I couldn't face the thought of leaving this addiction because I loved her with all of my heart. Just seeing her was nearly enough to make me blush and my palms sweat and my knees tremble. Of course I knew none of this was actually possible for me being a vampire and all, but I felt jittery around her. And content. For the first time in almost a century I felt content with how everything was and where I was in the world. Even though Alice had told me this wasn't permanent I couldn't help but think she must be mistaken and we truly were destined to be together.

…..

Thank you for reading, let me know what you think, I will reply to any reviews I can, meaning if you don't have an account it is very difficult to reply. Just a reminder that this is not related to my other stories so don't try to fit them together, they don't. And if you want something different to read, please check out my other stories.

Thanks

xx


	2. Chapter 2

**I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You**

**Chapter 2**

Nearly fifty five years of marital bliss and slightly odd family life passed quickly and before we knew it we had moved again started high school all over again. The family had become quick to accept Alice's visions of the future and use these to decide on the next destination, and this time it had been decided we would move to Forks, Washington. It was a gloomy place, less sunny days than almost anywhere inhabited, but that suited us best, and there was a reasonable high school and quite a large hospital for Carlisle to work in as the town served as one of the main regional centres of the area, along with the tourist town Port Angeles an hour or so away. Alice insisted we move here much more strongly than normally which suggested to me we were needed here for something big. Maybe to find our mates?

Alice and I hadn't spoke about our mates for most of the time we were married. We were content to live in the present, even if Alice could see the future. She firmly believed that the future needed to stay there in the future, and our heads needed to stay here in the present to enjoy living and to not wish our lives away. I was convinced she knew our mates awaited us in Forks. Alice further added to my suspicions when she asked me if we could be less flamboyant with our relationship while in Forks as it would make things easier in the near future. We could still act together, just not over-the-top together like Rose and Em. That meant keeping it to hand holding in public. And the occasional kiss. The unfortunate result of this was for the first month at Forks High there was a lot of gossip about whether we were together or not, and if there was anything going on between Alice and Edward as someone caught them holding hands once. But that was how Alice was, she held hands and hugged everyone and kissed everyone on the cheek. Well everyone in the family, we still didn't speak to humans unless absolutely necessary. I was good at distracting humans with my gift so they wouldn't feel the need to speak to us. A shot of fear or apprehension worked best or if I was feeling like being funny a shot of lust distracted them well enough.

A shot of lust worked well for distracting vampires too. Didn't feel like going shopping with Alice, push some lust on her and we would spend the day in our room instead. Didn't want to do something with Emmett, send him some lust and he went running to find Rose. But by far the funniest person to do this with was Edward. Shoot him some lust and he was likely to run away in embarrassment for a day or two fighting any natural urges he had. Stupid fucker. And half the time he was so caught up in his embarrassment he didn't even realise what I was doing. My gift could be fun.

"Could you stop doing that?" Edward growled, "I am trying to drive!"

"Doing what?"

"Projecting your emotions everywhere. I can handle most of them but the lust needs to stop." Oops, he probably didn't need to know what I was feeling towards his sister.

"No, I really don't." Edward and Alice had formed a very strong sibling relationship quickly after we found them, bonding over their gifts. They both understood and cherished the abilities, but found them annoying and uncontrollable often. At least I had good control over mine and was able to tune everything out most of the time. Unless people were feeling especially strong emotions or there were a lot of people around.

So here we were on a drizzly Tuesday morning, the 18th of January 2005, at Forks High School. Home of the Spartans. Whooooo! Nope. Not really, all their sports teams sucked ass and it was a bit of an embarrassment. I wish we were able to play on a team so we could show them what we could do, but instead we had to pretend to be average in gym and avoid drawing attention to our speed and strength. I mean I know why we had to but it irritated me.

Edward pulled his precious Volvo into the empty park next to Rose's car and we headed into school. Alice had insisted that we take two cars today instead of just one, so we were started at for even longer than normal. Until the truck thundered in. It had to be the loudest car I had ever heard, and I had been alive when cars were invented. The truck was massive and red and looked like an absolute rust bucket but you could see that it was well loved and had some work done on it and was once a great car. A long time ago but a great car none the less. It was also unfamiliar which meant it was the new girl's car. Alice was more excited about this new girl than she had been in a long time but she was hiding all of her visions really well, meaning none of us knew what it was about. Normally I could get her to talk about anything. It was a mystery which just evoked my usual sense of curiosity and made me want to figure it out. But at the same time I respected my wife's privacy to her own thoughts, something that Edward should learn to do. He was always in someone's head. He said he couldn't help it. Yeah right.

The day continued pretty normally until lunch time, with the exception of the buzz around the school about the new girl. The buzz was pleasant for me though because everyone was feeling happy, hopeful and curious, so that is what I felt. Unfortunately as I walked towards the cafeteria with Rose and Em they reminded me that these emotions lead me to looking stoned. This wouldn't be the first time humans thought I was stoned so it didn't bother me. Or maybe it was because of my great buzz I had going that I wasn't giving a fuck. Whatever.

We met Alice and Edward at the doors to the cafeteria and entered together. Em and Rose went first with his arm around her, then Alice and me holding hands, and finally Edward. We quickly grabbed some food and sat at our usual table in the back corner by the exit to the lawn by the parking lot. It was a convenient spot, it enabled us to be out of sight of most people so we didn't have to act so well at eating, and it also gave us an escape route should we need it.

Once we made our entrance I started to pay attention to the humans chatter.

"They always make such a big entrance, it's so annoying and kinda pretentious." Well yes, we did always make a big entrance, Rose and Emmett enjoyed the spotlight and I liked the emotions.

"Is he always stoned? That doesn't seem like normal behaviour for a rich doctor's kid." Really I wasn't the rich doctor's kid, nor a kid at all, I was physically about nineteen or twenty I think. And no, I'm not stoned. Emmett's voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Interesting conversation today, isn't it. All the gossip not only about the new girl, but also the resident stoner who has actually gotten stoned less times in his life than almost anyone else in the school." He chuckled.

"I have a reputation to keep up you know." I laughed before Edward interrupted us.

"New girls about to get our story."

What Jessica told her about us was a pretty good version of the story we planted in town but still edited enough that we seemed like freaks. The comments alluding to incest were hilarious because clearly she didn't understand what 'adopted' meant, but the comment about me looking like I was always in pain.

"Do I look like I am in pain a lot?"

"Not for a couple of years" Thanks Rose.

"No, really, since we have been practicing being around humans more you look more relaxed, but now you look a little too relaxed Jazz." Alice had forced me to practice being around humans more with her and because she was so excited about it of course I went along with it. At first it meant little adventures into different buildings with humans and longer shopping trips where we didn't hold our breath at all. Then we actually spoke to humans, and finally we would visit Carlisle in the hospital claiming he forgot something. Now I was coping really well and no one particularly felt the need to hang around me when we were near humans out of fear that I might snap. The only downside was I let my guard down to the point where the emotions flooded me sometimes and gave me the look of being stoned. Ah well, beggars can't be choosers and it wasn't the worst trade-off I could imagine.

Lunch moved along fairly quickly after that and we headed towards our next classes. Alice and I had gym and then Spanish together as we were both posing as juniors. Normally I would pose as Rose's twin and be in the same grade as her but this time we put out some bullshit story into the gossip circles about how I struggled in school a few years ago and had to repeat a year or something and how my twin sister overtook me academically. According to Alice I wanted to do my senior year with her and I learnt a long time ago to never bet against Alice, and why wouldn't I take the opportunity to have classes and graduate with my wife.

After the final bell rang we moved swiftly towards the parking lot and I was shocked to see Rose's red convertible was the only one of our cars there. Edward had taken off it seemed.

"Is this why you told us to bring two cars today?" I quietly asked my wife as we made our way to the car where our remaining brother and sister waited.

"Mmhmm, Edward almost exposed us, but luckily got it under control in time."

"Why the hell would he do that? He has the best control, after Carlisle."

"He found his singer, the new girl Bella, but after actually smelling her he reacted much worse than I saw. And I also saw that if he didn't meet her today in class he would meet her alone in town and wouldn't be able to control himself." Well that explained why Alice didn't tell him to stay away. One class of discomfort was much better than him eternally berating himself for killing an innocent girl.

Once we arrived home we found that Edward had taken Carlisle's car and gone north to Alaska for a while to clear his head and sort out what was happening with the girl. I was irritated that everyone was so worried about him and what he was going to decide. No one reacted like that when I came across a particularly good smelling human, or when Emmett did for that matter. When we did the only thoughts everyone had was if we needed to move, and how to keep us away from the human, how to prevent a murder. But goodie-two-shoes Eddie boy and his wellbeing were the only thoughts from most of the family. Of course Emmett and Rose were on a similar track to me. But that was mainly because Emmett had been in a similar position to me with how everyone reacted, and Rose just didn't want Edward to kill the girl because then we would be exposed and have to move to cover our tracks. Rose hated aspects of this life more than anyone else.


	3. Chapter 3

**I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You**

**Chapter 3**

It had been almost a week since Edward had left due to the smell of the new girl's blood. She was Isabella Swan, or Bella as she preferred, seventeen years old, and the daughter of the chief of police in Forks. She was returning to the town she was born in after living with her mother for her whole life somewhere in California and Arizona. Gossip ran through Forks quickly, and it had already reached Esme, who was usually one of the last people to hear it because of the humans' natural aversion to us. She had been told by Mrs Stanley, the mother of Jessica from school, all of Bella's story, how her mother ran away with her, kept her away from her father and was a flighty person, now abandoning her daughter to run off with a new man. Mrs Stanley had even known about how Bella was behaving at school, because of her daughter, and I found great amusement in the fact that Edward hadn't been at all discreet in his actions when they first met, and Bella found him frightening, yet had asked a couple of people at school why he wasn't there. She was curious.

Her curiosity had peaked my own, and I decided to spend the next few weeks watching, discreetly from a safe distance, to observe why this girl was curious. No humans were curious about us, they simply feared us. And while she had been scared in the classroom, from what I understood from Alice's description of her vision, the girl hadn't consciously been aware of her fear, and instead simply felt uncomfortable. Maybe I could run some emotions by her and see how she reacted. Maybe there was something wrong with her and how she processed her emotions. While it was rare, I had found a couple of humans in my existence who hadn't naturally felt fear, until I showed it to them anyway.

But now we were heading back to school, as was Edward, and apparently he had a similar plan to me because he wanted to get to know the girl as he had been unable to read her thoughts. That information alone further peaked my interest because if the human girl had a gift powerful enough to stop Edward's, could she stop mine, or Alice's. If none of our gifts worked around her then we could be in danger, what if she started to have suspicions about us and we were unaware until she told someone. Things could escalate immensely if we didn't take proper care.

Monday was mostly uneventful, Edward spoke to Bella Swan, and I observed her when I had the chance, but we were mostly unable to find anything. Edward did confirm some of the story of how she came to Forks, but commented that Bella seemed unwilling to give this information away. I however did find that my gift worked fine against her, as I was able to feel the change in her emotions from across the cafeteria at lunch when she became embarrassed for being caught staring at Edward. The change in emotions was almost comical because normally a human couldn't feel such a quick change in emotions, and I also normally couldn't pinpoint someone's emotions from such a distance unless I was much attuned to their emotional climate. I would easily be able to do it over this distance for my family, and probably twice that for Alice, but for an unfamiliar human it was odd. Maybe she had very strong reaction to emotions, or maybe I accidentally projected my expectations of her emotions on to her.

Everything was fine until Tuesday when Edward exposed us to the girl. It had rained all night, and then the temperature early this morning dropped to below freezing. It had no effect on us, but none of the humans were coping properly, they forgot the basics when it came to driving on ice, they forgot how to walk, and they just became more accident prone. I was breathing as little as possible at the moment, should a human fall and bleed everywhere and destroy my self-control. While it was the best it had ever been, I still worried about being in situations where I could snap. Everyone stopped breathing when we heard the tires of a minivan squeal as they drove over ice. In a fraction of a second, Alice had a vision, and Edward ran towards Bella Swan, who was in the direct path of the van. I groaned as he pulled her to the ground and stopped the van with only his hand. Now she knew.

I forced myself to remain calm and tried to project the feeling onto my family, however Rosalie was fuming, and even Emmett was angry at the possible exposure. Great. Now we would have to kill the girl and make it look like and accident, and then we would have to leave. Long enough after she died to ease suspicion on us, but soon enough that no one questioned how Edward got their so fast. Or maybe would could just kill the girl and disappear. We would be the prime suspects, but a decade of hiding was a small price to pay considering there was the possibility of the Volturi getting involved because of the exposure. Fucking hell Edward.

"Okay people, damage control," Alice quickly spoke, "Rose, you and me need to play the part of the worried sisters who are concerned for our brother's safety while Emmett and Jasper need to fix the damage Edward did."

"Why the hell should I have to help fix Eddie's stupid mistake?" Rose questioned, she was livid about the possibility of exposure.

"It keeps us safe and lets us stay here for at least another eighteen months. You hate moving, so deal with it!" Alice never got aggressive towards Rose, she knew Rose was a tough opponent, and also her best friend and sister. "Jasper, once they move the van and get them in the ambulance, smuggle Edward's things over near the van and pretend you are picking up his dropped books. When the principle asks what Edward was doing over here, he wanted to ask Bella about the homework he missed last week. Emmett, fix up the dents in the cars to make it look like the van hit the corner of the truck bed, not the idiots hand." Even Alice was annoyed. Good.

We played our parts as best as we could, probably earned ourselves a couple of Oscar's for our performances, and then made our way to the hospital as quickly as possible. Most of the junior class was doing the same, as well as a few other people in other grades, everyone always looked for excuses to leave school, and I doubt any teachers would punish anyone for missing today. The teachers probably wouldn't be too effective anyway as they were all as shaken as most of the students. A near tragedy in the parking lot before school that resulted in three students going to the hospital was a big thing in such as tiny town.

By the end of the day, everyone was pissed off at Edward, and Rose and I were about ready to kill the girl to keep our secret. Alice dragged me out to hunt before I snapped at Edward, who wanted to protect the girl, and before I hunted the girl down. A smart move by Alice. It was only after we were far enough away from the house that no one would over hear us, and Edward couldn't read our thoughts, that Alice confided in me about her vision.

Edward had only seen the first part of the vision and reacted on the assumptions from that, but before we arrived at the hospital this afternoon Alice had a second part of that vision.

"Bella is hugely important to this family Jazz, she is going to test us but in the end she is going to save us."

"What do you mean test us and save us? Is there danger coming?" I worried for my family, I was going to slip back into my old ways of military mode and find a way to destroy the threat before it reached us.

"No, the danger is within us, without her, we cease to continue as a family. She and Edward will form a strong relationship, and fall in love, but they are not mates. And then something big is going to happen, I don't know what yet but it has the power to separate the family. Then Bella helps to bring us back together. And she is the key to us finding our soul mates Jazz."

"Then I guess we have to protect her, and when the time comes we will have to trust her."

"Thank you Jazz, I love you!" She sang, knowing she got her way and changed my thoughts on the girl.

"Love you too, Ali. Let's quickly hunt then head home and get ready for school."

…..

It was now Thursday, the week after the almost accident and Edward was behaving like a prissy little boy who had his favourite toy taken from him. He was head over heels in lust for this poor human girl but had avoided her since last Tuesday, apparently to avoid her suspicions. But really I knew it was because he freaked out about his emotions and feelings towards a human. Alice and I had sworn we wouldn't let him know what was going on, so we kept him out of heads with a range of techniques. My favourite technique was sex. Either doing it or thinking about it kept him out. Although there was quite a humorous issue with this plan of using sex to keep Edward out of our thoughts. Last night Alice had done this amazing thing with her mouth and I was so carried away I projected a massive amount of lust throughout the house. Let's just say that for all the couples in the family I may as well have initiated an orgy, and they all ran to their respective rooms. Actually, I don't think Rose and Emmett made it to their room. But Edward ran to Canada. The prude. Everyone else had a good time, he should learn to enjoy the issues I occasionally have with my gift.

The original plan for today was we were all going to school for half a day, because all the bio classes were blood typing today and it was safer for us if we avoided bleeding humans. Edward however was going to mess all of that up for us. He had finally decided to talk to Bella again, and hopefully would be able to do it without exposing us. He would of course have to skip bio, after lunch, but he planned to spend lunch with Bella.

Of course, like everything Edward planned something had to go wrong, usually because Edward was the world's worst planner. Well, maybe not the worst, but he was frozen as an emotionally immature seventeen year old boy forever. And of course seventeen year olds hardly ever think of the consequences of their actions, or how their plans might affect others.

So when we emerged from class after the final bell signalled the end of the day and we saw Edward's car was missing we all panicked a little. Had he finally snapped and lured her away from the school to drain her? Or had he drained her and ran away from the consequences. The only thing we could do was remain calm on the outside and not alert the humans to the possible murder. The panic only increased when we all saw her truck; that was until Alice's face went blank before she smiled widely.

"Edward is fine, and he is under control with Bella. He found her stumbling around outside the classroom half conscious and took her the nurse before driving her home. I have to deliver the truck to her place."

It was a relief to know we didn't have to cover a murder up. At least not yet, he could still snap just from being near her because her blood smelt so potent to him.

"Rose, what would be the best way to start the truck without a key? Would hotwiring it be alright?" Alice asked Rose, because although Alice knew what sort of cars she liked, Rose was the resident mechanic at home.

"Nah, a flat tipped screw driver will work just fine as a key in something that old." Of course Rose knew exactly how to steal any sort of car and make it look like the person stealing it just had a key.

Alice pulled my face down to hers for a quick kiss, took a screw driver out of the emergency tool kit in Rose's car and danced over to the truck, where a quick, sharp tap to the door unlocked it and a jiggle of the screw driver started it. No one even looked twice at Alice stealing the car, many of the students saw, but apparently no one made the connection that Alice Cullen was in Bella Swan's car. These humans didn't give a fuck about anything important apparently. I guess we now know to make sure the cars are locked because no one will care if someone just drives off in them.

We didn't even bother following Alice, either she would get Edward to take her home if he was still with Bella, or she would just duck into the woods and run home, it would be faster, and less crowded in the car. By the time we were home Edward was as well, and the emotions he was giving off were comedic gold.

"Eddie's in lust!" I teased as we walked in.

"I am not!" He defended himself.

"And you two are acting like children. Why would you disappear with a human like that Edward? We thought you drained her! We were ready to help you hide the body and leave." Rose was angrier than I had felt her in a long time.

"I will never drain Bella, I lo- find her very interesting." He trailed off at the end, trying to down play what he almost said.

"What was that? You lo her? Do you mean you love her, Eddie?" Emmett teased, once again proving he was the annoying big brother of the family even if he was actually the youngest vampire in the house.

Edward stupidly, or wisely, I wasn't sure which, chose not to comment.

"So you do, don't you. You luuurve her." Emmett continued to tease.

"Shut up Emmett!"

"Wow, witty reply there Eddie. Don't know any stronger words than 'shut up'?" Emmett was enjoying this far too much, and I was riding the high of his emotions quite happily. Alice quietly slipped in the front door at this moment and took my hand.

"Fuck off Emmett!" Edward practically yelled.

We were stunned into silence for a while before Alice broke it with her tinkling laugh.

"Eddie said fuck!" She gasped out between giggles.

That was enough to set the rest of us off, even Esme was laughing rather than scolding Edward and Alice for their language as she usually would. It was just so rare that Edward would swear that it always took us off guard. He, Esme and Carlisle where the ones who really held on strictly to their human values, but mostly Edward. He didn't swear, he believed humans over consumption of alcohol was always inappropriate, and most importantly Edward did not believe in sex before marriage. He was the 104 year old virgin. We should make a movie about it, like the 40 year old virgin but worse.

The rest of us were all raised with similar values, sort of, but had moved away from them when our immortal lives had started. Emmett and Rose had fallen in love straight after his change had ended and abandoned any values they had right then. Well according to Edward that is what happened anyway. And Alice couldn't remember any of human life so she didn't remember how she was raised, she only had her visions of the future to go by.

And I was completely different. Growing up as the youngest of four sons of a cowboy in Texas had given me a strange combination of strict religion and relaxed morals at the same time. Then my rebirth into the immortal world hadn't been very moral. In the newborn armies anything went as long as you weren't killing each other. And with gift that I was mostly ignorant of at that point, I felt whatever everyone else did, and there were often situations much like the previous night when I lost control of my projections. That was always interesting.

The rest of the night passed like a fairly normal one, we all finished any homework at some point, read, Edward played his piano, Carlisle came home from his night shift and everyone spent time with their other halves. Early in the morning Emmett and Edward left for their hunting trip and the rest of us went to school for another day in hell. Although it was funny to observe Bella now that she and Edward had developed some sort of relationship.

…

**A.N.: **Hope you like a little bit of the sibling teasing and humour here, and my version of what happened after the almost accident.

Anyone questioning the whole thing with the truck and the screwdriver; that was based off of a real life experience I've had. When I was younger my parents didn't have any spare cash so my dad still drove his car from when he was a teenager, an old sedan about the same age as Bella's truck would be, and one day the office at his work closed up before the factory my dad worked in did and he was unable to get in and get his car keys (Dad was the last one to leave), so he made a snap decision, stole a screwdriver from the factory and broke into his own car and drove home with the screwdriver as a key. Luckily he didn't get pulled over because that would have been impossible to explain.

Anyway, thank you for reading, hope you like it.

xx


	4. Chapter 4

**I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You**

**Chapter 4**

It was now Sunday, the thirteenth of March, and today we were going to be properly introduced to Bella, however due to Edward's obsession over her it was really a formality as we felt as if we already knew her. Obsession really was the way to describe his feelings towards Bella, yes he was starting to love her, but it wasn't the same as the love other couples I knew experienced. He felt an unprecedented need to protect her, and care for her, and he did lover he, but he was also extremely possessive of her. Too possessive. The feelings he had when he talked about her were similar to the feelings he had about his piano or his cars. Not exactly the types of feelings that where important when starting a relationship with someone.

And know she knew our secret. Great Eddie. Think that you are in love with a human when really you are just feeling possessive over her and have the two things confused, and then leave a trail for her to follow to figure out the secret and then tell her everything when she asks. Wow, there is absolutely no way this could ever go wrong. I hoped for Bella's sake this all worked, because if it didn't there may be no choice but to kill her or face the wrath of the Volturi which was something I would always want to avoid. In my opinion the life of one young human was not worth risking all of ours.

Alice and I had been hunting this morning, just in case, because we would be spending quite a lot of time with a human nearby and after spending the morning together, often naked, enjoying a vampire's version of a romantic dinner date, we were slightly late to be back home. I felt the poor girl's emotions as soon as we were within sight of the house and I couldn't help but feel bad for her. She was absolutely terrified, and she wasn't even in the house yet, I could hear her and Edward talking quietly in the car. Alice and I slowed to a walk on the off chance that she would see us, as we didn't know how much Edward had told her, and I didn't want to scare her beyond the point of my gift helping. Humans were occasionally able to scare themselves into an intense panic attack that I couldn't help with.

I heard the two of them make their way up to the house and into the kitchen where everyone was waiting to be introduced. I quickly climbed the tree that grew next to the large, open kitchen window and stepped in as Edward and Bella entered before I helped Alice in. She didn't actually need any help but that was one of the few strong morals from my human life I kept; always help a lady, even if she doesn't need it, it is the polite thing to do.

"Bella, I would like you to meet my family. My parents, Carlisle and Esme, Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice. Everyone, this is Bella." Edward was so formal, never relaxing at all unlike the rest of us who were relaxed unless we were stressed. Edward didn't feel too stressed right no, but Bella definitely did, maybe I should help her out.

Alice danced forward dragging me along to introduce herself by pulling Bella into a hug. The poor girl stiffened visibly before allowing herself to relax, although her terror level didn't really increase which suggested she was just unused to interpersonal contact, rather than wary Alice was trying to make a meal out of her.

"I can tell we're going to be great friends, Bella!" Said Alice in a tinkling voice.

"Oh, it's… er… lovely to meet you Alice." Yeah, Bella was awkward.

I stepped forward to introduce myself to her then and held my hand out as if for a handshake, but when she timidly reached my hand I bent down and kissed the back of it with a smirk. I don't know why, I wouldn't normally be so forward with a woman I didn't know, but if Alice was to be believed- and I would never bet against her- then I would know her soon enough.

Edward quickly whisked Bella away from the family after the rest of the introductions, he was feeling even more possessive after I kissed her hand. He was almost jealous which was just hilarious as I was happily married. Why should he be jealous, I was just being kind, and experimenting with Bella's emotions?

It was mid-afternoon when Alice had a vision of a large thunderstorm, she had been seeing it on and off for weeks, but now it was going to be loud enough for us to have a game of baseball. Everyone was in as soon as we asked, and Edward invited Bella. I hope he had shown her our speed and strength when they spent the day together yesterday, because if not then she was in for a bit of a shock tonight. We never held back during our games, it was a chance for us to be ourselves and show off a bit.

…..

Wow things went to shit really quickly last night. One minute we were playing, having a great time, and then Alice had a vision of some nomads coming to visit, and one thing lead to another and now I'm driving Carlisle's car down to Phoenix with Alice and Bella, who was currently crying in her sleep. The nomads initially fucked everything up, but then Edward fucked things up even more.

The leader of the nomad coven, James was a tracker and took a likening to Bella as soon as the wind blew her scent into his face and he instantly crouched for the kill. Of course we all reacted defensively and protected Bella. That annoyed James because apparently when he wants something, he finds a way to get it and because in his mind we were thwarting him, he was going to try even harder. And when Edward picked up in his thoughts that he was planning on waiting until Bella was left unprotected before tracking her, Edward got possessive. Because in his immature mind, Bella was HIS, and no one would take her from him. That is all well and good, but when he vocalised that, Bella was caught off guard and obviously had no idea of the power of Edward's feelings. At least she didn't react out loud then, but I could feel her apprehension.

Then, when he physically forced her onto his back and ran with her, he terrified her to the point of tears. I think she feared for her life at that point, and I didn't blame her because Edward was in the same frame of mind that he was in when he was hunting. Not ideal for your new, human girlfriend to see just days after she finds out you aren't human and crave her blood more than anyone else's. Even worse, he didn't want to give Bella a choice about where she would run, he wasn't even listening to her at all. I rode in the jeep with the two of them and Alice and we tried to diffuse the situation, Alice with calming words, and me with my gift, but things weren't going well.

Edward, who was raised in the early twentieth century, felt that telling Bella what she would do to keep safe was the best idea. And Bella, who was definitely more attuned to the twenty first century wanted to make the decision herself and control her own safety.

"Bella, I'll take you, drive to Seattle, then run you somewhere else and hide while everyone finds and stops James." Edward just about growled at her.

"Edward, I think there's a better way to do this. What would my Dad say if I ran away with my boyfriend of a week?" Bella was actually taking the time to think about how it would affect everyone in the long run, she certainly was smart.

"Forget about your father for now Bella, you can call him once I get you safe."

"What!? You're not even going to take me home now?"

"Of course not, I need you away from Forks as soon as possible. I don't know what I would do if he found you."

"YOU don't know what YOU would do if he found me? Can you not make this about you for one second Edward!? This is my LIFE we are talking about, let me have a say in what we do!" Bella was just about yelling at him now, and Edward didn't like it at all. "And I will not forget about my dad, he is a cop and if we suddenly disappear he will have every cop in the country on the lookout for you, and while you could probably deal with that just fine, what about me? If I'm with you we are going to need to stop for food and somewhere to sleep, but that would be pretty difficult with the police after us, wouldn't it?" Bella was really smart.

"What should we do then, Bella? Seeing as you know so much about running from homicidal vampires?" Now Edward was just behaving immaturely.

"Well, Edward," she spat at him as if his name was the vilest curse, "Maybe you should take me home, where I can tell Charlie I had a fight with you and hate Forks and that I am going home to Phoenix. Then someone can actually come south with me while you can get rid of James, and then _maybe_ I'll think of coming back to Forks." Whoa she had a sharp tongue when she was angry, I could practically feel the words cut me, and they weren't even directed at me. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Alice having a vision.

"Fine. Tell your father whatever you like, once we get to your house you have ten minutes to pack a bag and tell him, and then I will run you somewhere." Edward was pissed that someone had openly told him 'no'.

"No Edward," Alice interrupted in a surprisingly dangerous tone, "Bella needs to be in the house for fifteen minutes before she tells her dad, then the tracker will hear her plans and assume it was a bluff, and begin to keep an eye on you Edward. Then Jasper and I will take her to Phoenix, where we will wait for you to take care of the tracker."

So Alice and I were going to take Bella. I wasn't sure what I thought about it at first, but I would do anything for Alice, and I also felt the need to protect Bella for some reason, and when I really thought about it, getting the tracker to hear where we were taking her, and then actually doing it was a great idea.

"Fine. We will go to your house and let him hear where you are going. I'll stay outside and Alice and Jasper can take the car back to the house and wait there. Then I will drive you in your truck to our place and we'll go from there." Edward was taking charge again, making it about him.

"No." Ooh, Bella was pissed at him, "You can take this car home, Alice can help me pack everything I need and keep a look out to see when the tracker has heard, and then Alice and Jasper can come with me when I drive my car to your place where we can switch for a better car and leave."

…

**A.N.: **Sorry this one is a bit shorter than the other ones have been, if I included the next bit it would be a mega long chapter and a bit _too much_ for one chapter. Hope you are still enjoying it, I assure you that it will soon be a Jasper/Bella story, I just needed to give it a realistic was to start their love, and I couldn't see Jasper falling in love with Bella at first sight and leaving Alice like that- he is a proper gentleman, most of the time.

xx


	5. Chapter 5

**I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You**

**Chapter 5**

So now, it was six in the morning and we were approaching Phoenix, another half hour or so and we would be there. Normally this drive should have taken a couple of days, but where's the fun in following road laws? It's not like I would get a ticket because Alice would see if I was coming up to a police car. I felt terrible that this poor young girl had to go through all of this due to my stupid brother's reactions. If he had reacted less possessively there was a huge chance that the conflict with James could have been altogether avoided, or much smaller, and then if the conflict hadn't been avoidable Bella wouldn't be so distressed because of his stupid comments.

But no, Edward had managed to say and do all the wrong things resulting in one terrified and upset human crying for ten hours straight. She hadn't cried straight away after her fight with Edward, it was after, in the car when Alice pulled her into a hug that Bella had lost control. I could feel her emotions and they were confusing. She was angry at Edward for how he treated her, and she felt guilty because she hadn't said a word to him when he tried to say goodbye before he left to lay a false trail for the tracker. She just stood there looking at Alice and myself while Edward tried to reassure her that he would fix everything. She was stubborn. And then she was worried that this plan wouldn't work and the tracker would find her and she had put myself and Alice in danger. Little did she know that Alice and I were probably the best ones to look after her, what with my experience in the newborn armies, and Alice's gift and fighting skills?

I felt that I needed to tell Bella about my past, like I owed her that. She had chosen Alice and me to be her guardians for an unknown amount of time while facing an unknown foe, and yet she had only met us mere hours earlier. She deserved to know that one of her self-appointed protectors was actually a mass murderer, and that I had the weakest control in the whole family. I supposed we were going to spend a lot of time together holed up in a hotel room, so I would be able to find the best time to bring it up. I just hoped that it didn't scare her too much and make her regret blindly putting her faith into Alice and myself.

We arrived in Phoenix and quickly found a hotel. It wasn't too flashy, just a modest building with enough people that no one would notice us, without having too many witnesses to our arrival should James come looking. I quickly made the arrangements for a two bedroom suite with kitchen facilities should Bella feel like cooking her own food rather than constantly ordering it. I knew humans ate very frequently and I guessed that the food she could order in this hotel would probably be limited and she would quickly bore of it. And from what I could tell from what Edward had said about Bella, she liked cooking and found it relaxing. And again, as we were here indefinitely she needed something to keep her mind off of the current situation in Forks.

Rosalie and Esme had helped to lay a false trail for the tracker before returning to Forks to be seen in town to reduce suspicions and watch over Chief Swan, while Emmett, Carlisle and Edward tried to track the tracker and lure him into a trap. It was a good plan, but if I were Carlisle I would have swapped placed with Rose as he was more often seen in town, and Rose was by far the better tracker and fighter. Both Alice and Rosalie were surprisingly good fighters when needed, Alice used her visions and un-proportionate strength, but Rosalie was fearless in a fight and manipulated the situation to give herself the upper hand. When Rose went for the kill, her prey never escaped. I had seen her in a proper fight with a vampire in a life or death situation only once, about thirty years ago when a couple of rogue nomads tried to claim some of our territory in New York. Rose and I were hunting by ourselves and they ambushed us, trying to take us off guard and kill us off one by one. They had no idea that they went for two of the strongest fighters first. My fight was over fairly quickly, and as I was dismembering my opponents I watched Rose. She knew she was facing a tough opponent and tried to think of any way to sway the odds in her favour. I tried to intervene but she made it clear she wanted to do it herself. In the end she ripped of her own shirt and distracted the stupid male vampire with the sight of her naked chest. The fight only lasted another two seconds before he decapitated him. I was quick to offer her my shirt after we were done to give the illusion of protecting her modesty, but in a family like ours, everyone had seen everyone else naked on several occasions and it no longer had any effect on us. And I would freely admit that Rose was extremely beautiful and not at all bad to look at, but she was my adopted sister and I treated her with the respect all women deserve.

An hour after arriving in the hotel Edward rang. He wanted to speak to Bella, to apologise for his actions, but she was still sleeping after being awake crying most of the night. When we arrived at the hotel she had barely stirred and I had to carry her to the room. She was only small, I hadn't realised when I met her. Of course I could see that she was short, only about five foot four, but holding her I could tell that she was thin, fragile. This concerned me that such a thin, fragile, and very young human had managed to get so involved with supernatural beings that wanted her dead for one reason or another, and it just fuelled my anger towards my brother.

"You really fucked up Edward. She hasn't said a word since we left her house, apart from a few mumbles in her sleep." Why was I so angry at the hurt he had caused someone I didn't know?

"I know, and it will always haunt me. I was too selfish to see that my involvement with her would cause her danger from vampires other than myself. Maybe once she is safe I need to end this before she develops deeper feelings for me, it would be safer." Was he really that stupid?

"Before she develops deeper feelings? Do you realise how stupid you sound? She may not understand the depth of her feelings yet but she loves you, I can feel it. All she has mumbled in her sleep is she is sorry and she loves you, you idiot." I hung up on him, I was getting irrationally angry at him, and talking about how much Bella loved Edward was causing me further anger for some reason.

"Alice, what's going on?" she always had a good answer when I didn't.

"It's all going to be good soon, we just need to get through this first, then everything will work out by the end of the summer." She moved from her spot at the small kitchen table towards me.

"Well aren't you just a little know-it-all!" I cheekily replied and stuck my tongue out at her which she quickly ducked in and nipped at. As she tried to pull away I gently grabbed her small hips and pulled her down to straddle my lap. Apart from hunting yesterday morning we hadn't had much time alone together recently, and although we weren't completely alone, it was nice to know there weren't five other people listening in.

It was about half an hour later when we were taken by surprise by the sound of Bella clearing her throat in an effort to announce her presence subtly. I quickly ended my kiss with Alice and looked at Bella, if I could have blushed I would have. Alice just giggled and swung her leg around gracefully to sit across my lap rather than straddling me. I was just grateful she stayed on my lap as I was sure Bella would see my excitement if Alice moved.

"We weren't sure when you would be awake and want food, so I ordered some fruit and cereal for you, it's in the fridge." Alice smoothly lied, of course she knew when Bella would be awake, but she just didn't want Bella to know that Alice knew pretty much everything.

"Thank you, but I find it hard to believe that you didn't know when I would be awake." So Bella knew more about us than I thought.

Alice simply giggled and smiled shamefully at being caught lying.

"No, really thank you. And you don't have to play human just because I'm here, be yourselves and I'll get used to it, or let you know if you freak me out." She was a very considerate human.

I turned the television on to the news then to give us something to so while Bella ate. I may not know a lot about interacting with humans, but I did know that she probably didn't want us to watch her eat. I could feel her relief when we left her alone to eat. Alice moved off of my lap once everything had calmed down and back to her spot at the table where she had left a small pile of paper and pens.

"What's that Alice?" Bella asked as she saw Alice start to sketch again.

"Bits and pieces of visions, I can't tell what they are yet because the person making the decisions hasn't started on this path fully yet, they only have a bit of an idea of what they want to do. I draw my visions when they are vague pieces so I can put them together later and to keep track of it all. I feel like these might be important, maybe to do with James."

"Ok, do you have a lot of visions all the time, or are they just random? Sorry, you don't need to answer if I'm being nosy." I liked Bella's curiosity, it showed me shad had a thirst for knowledge which is something I felt more humans needed.

"Not all the time, but I am looking constantly at the moment to see if we need to move. Usually they are random throughout the day, especially if I am bored and not concentrating on not seeing anything."

Bella was genuinely curious and wanted to get to know Alice. That was good because even if Bella and Edward didn't get over their differences I could see the two of them being friends, I was glad because then I would also be able to get to know Bella and become friends with her. I wanted to know about her life before Forks, and what she wanted to do. Now that she knew our secret I could be open with her, and I knew that she would always be a part of our life because of her knowing.

Alice's face went blank in a vision as I was stuck in my own internal monologue and a smile quickly spread across her face, reassuring me that she wasn't seeing something horrible go wrong with our current plans.

"What is it Ali? You haven't been this happy with a vision in a long time." I was curious. Last time she had a vision with such a reaction she had announced that our mates were only a few years away and we were on the right path, and would meet them only a year apart.

"Your mate. I can fully see her and your life together and I'm so happy for you! And by some decision that just occurred, your mate leads me to meeting mine!" Alice flung herself at me and I span her around, her emotions overtaking my own.

"Really? How soon? Are they great? Does everything work out?" Shit I was caught up in these emotions and babbling like a school girl.

"Everything will be amazing and you know her and she isn't aware yet but she will be and you will love her but you aren't aware of it yet, it will grow soon and the whole family will love her and she will be a great part of the family!" Alice babbled at me in a high pitched voice.

"I'm really happy that you are both so happy, but I'm really confused as to why?" Bella questions quietly, not wanting to break up our moment.

I placed Alice back on her feet and sat at the table across from Bella.

"How much did Edward tell you about vampires? And did he tell you anything about mates?" I honestly didn't know what Edward had told her.

"Not a lot, just that you were human, and were changed, and all about the superhuman speed and strength and gifts and stuff. He deliberately wouldn't talk about how you become a vampire or anyone in particulars past, except a bit about his and Carlisle's. He seemed hesitant to tell me."

"Well," Edward sure hadn't made it easy for us, because each one little thing we told her was going to something else she would need explained. "He probably left out some things not to overload you with too much information, or he thought it would scare you, and he also doesn't like telling other people's stories because he hears so much more than people intend."

"Well then, tell me everything you feel comfortable sharing, and don't worry about overloading, I'd rather be prepared than have no idea of what to do should something happen."

"Good, then we will all be on the same page." And so I told her everything, with the help of Alice. I told her a very brief description of everyone's pasts, only enough that Bella had some idea, not enough that we were intruding on anything private. Like I told her Rose was attacked and left for dead, but nothing else. We told her about how over the top a vampire's arsenal of weapons was, and how vampires were changed. We didn't go into any particular details of the change though because we didn't want to scare her because I could guess that she had already begun to contemplate asking to be changed.

We stopped with the day's education around lunch time for Bella to eat and use the bathroom. It was interesting how often humans needed to do things like eat and use the bathroom, when you didn't need to do it, it was easy to forget.

Bella had taken everything rather well, and absorbed all of the information we sort of threw at her as if she was a sponge. She truly had a great thirst for knowledge. She didn't even seem appalled like I thought she would be when I told her marts of my past, of course I left out many of the worse parts, but she would have been able to tell I was censoring my tale. She was also very shocked when she learnt that Alice seemed to have no past, as she had no memories from before waking from the change. Bella truly mourned for the loss of lives when she learnt exactly what everyone was forced to give up after the change. She was very kind hearted, in a way like Esme, but I could still tell there was a fierce resilience in there like Rose and Alice possessed. If Bella were to become a vampire she would truly be a force to be reckoned with- tough and able to stand her own, but with enough compassion that she would likely seek justice if anyone she knew was wronged. I didn't know where that thought came from, Bella had only learned the mechanics of the change hours ago, and only of the existence of vampire's mere days ago. I should remember not to jump to conclusions.

The day returned to the dull tone of the early morning soon after our conversation with Bella finished. She occasionally asked a question, or myself or Alice would ask her a question about her life before Forks, but we didn't find the rhythm of a good conversation again. We tried to distract ourselves with movies, television shows, more news, and reading. But when we weren't sure what was happening back home it was difficult to do anything but worry. What if they had been ambushed? What of it came to a fight but our family weren't good enough? What if someone had been killed? Rationally and logically I knew that everything would be fine, but with the current emotional climate being one of fear, it was difficult to be logical.

Then I realised that it wasn't even my own fear I was feeling, nor was it Alice's. It was Bella's, and I was picking it up so strongly that I didn't even feel my own emotions anymore, or my wife's, and I had always felt Alice's emotions easily because we were so attuned. Maybe it was because I was spending so much time in close company with a human that I was unable to feel any emotions other than her own. Maybe I should leave for a little while, go for a quick hunt.

"Good idea Jazz, you go first and I'll follow later. There are a few animals around the Phoenix area, mostly coyote's, but they'll be alright." Alice told me as I Decided to hunt. "I'll call you if I hear anything, keep your phone on you."

I quietly left the hotel on foot, it was about eight pm, and it was dark enough that I was inconspicuous, but it was still very warm outside and humans would probably question me as to why I was out walking around by myself. If it was a little cooler I could pretend to be a runner training, but no humans were out running, it had been an unseasonably warm few days. I tried to look like I was going somewhere, rather than just heading out of the main part of the city, and eventually found a few quitter areas where I could start to run.

It took almost an hour before I found some animals I could hunt, and was in a suitable area. I had run north east out of Phoenix in the hope of finding some larger game in the Tonto National park, and I was not disappointed. I could easily smell there were several coyotes and bobcats around, but they were small and I would need to hunt a few, but then I could faintly smell a black bear and knew that's what I was after. It only took a couple of minutes to find him, a large, old male, and only a few seconds for me to snap his neck and drain him. It was exactly what I needed.

The run back to the hotel was easier than leaving as it was darker and there were less people around. I didn't even have to consciously remember where to go, I felt some force pulling me towards the hotel. I hoped it was just a pull towards Alice, and not an instinctual reaction to danger she may have been in. But she hadn't called me so I assumed everything was fine. As I walked through the hotel lobby to the stairwell Alice anced down the stairs and towards me, where I pulled her into my arms.

"Where did you find the bear?" She questioned as I held her, her head buried in my chest, our little moment alone in the chaos.

"Tonto, there was the scent of a few more around. Just run north east and you'll find it. There were a few deer around as well if there aren't any decent bears." I wanted to take her there myself, show her where to go and spend the night out there with her. Hunting and watching the sky and being us, just the two of us, because as happy as we were about finding our mates soon, it would mean it wouldn't be the two of us anymore. I would miss her. Alice was my everything and I didn't know how I would live without her being the centre of my world.

"You should head back up to the room, Bella will probably wake up soon, her sleeping schedule is all out of whack and it would be cruel for her to wake alone. I'll be back in a few hours, I need to head to the shop on my way back and get Bella some more food."

"Ok love, have fun and call me if you need anything." And with a quick, sweet kiss on her lips she danced back out of the hotel and into the night.

I quickly made my way to the room where we had been stuck since yesterday morning, unwilling to leave Bella in there alone now that Alice and her gift were some distance away. It was quiet in the room except for Bella's soft breathing and occasional whispered word. She mostly mumbled nonsense, but twice said Edward's name and once followed it by the phrase 'not sorry'.

At about two am her breathing quickened and I quickly turned the television on to the news channel to make it seem like I had been watching, rather than imitating a statue as I was inclined to do when there was nothing else. Bella left her bedroom and came into the small living room soon after she woke and was shocked to see only me, not Alice. I answered her unspoken question quietly, so not to shock her further.

"She went for a quick hunt and then she's going grocery shopping."

"Thanks, how did you know I was going to ask that?"

"I felt the shock of seeing only me, and the slight worry, and guessed it was because you were worried that Alice wasn't here."

"Good guess, I suppose you got good at that. Using your gift to help guess what people are doing or asking, I mean?"

"Yeah, I've had a bit of practice with it." I wryly answered, Bella still had no idea of my real age, she hadn't asked, although she would probably be able to guess with the information I had given her about myself.

"Well, I have a guess about some things about you. I am guessing that you are about a hundred and sixty, give or take a few years? And I guess that you served in the Civil War?" She was good.

"Pretty accurate. What gave it away?" I was exceptionally curious about her though process.

"Well, you said you were older than Edward, and fought in a war, and you specified that you stayed in your home state when you were fighting. That leaves either the revolutionary war, or the civil war, and I guessed civil war because I know a few key events of it happened in Texas, and you still have a fairly strong accent."

"Smart, you got it all right. How about I guess about you? Not stuff like age, things you haven't even told Eddie yet?" At two in the morning there wasn't a whole lot else to do when we were stuck in a little hotel room.

We played this guessing game for a good hour, in which I correctly guessed she had been in all AP classes in school, was a terrible dancer, and that she was always used to taking care of other people. However I incorrectly guessed that she had a large group of friends, and had a boyfriend before she moved to Forks.

"Really?" How could no one like Bella?

"Nope. I was the weird girl with no friends, my Mom was my best friend, and even then I didn't really connect with her all the time. I always worried that my brain was on a different frequency to other humans."

"Well then, obviously your brain is on the same frequency as some vampires, because you seem to get along fine with everyone in the family." Except Rosalie, but she would get there.

"Yeah, except Rosalie. I don't think she likes me very much." There was sadness in her emotions, I could tell she wanted Rose to like her, she wanted to be fully accepted by the family.

"She will, Rose just takes some time to war-," I was cut off then my cell phone ringing.

"Alice?" I answered, hoping there was no bad news.

"I had a vision of Bella being attacked by James! Do not let her out of your sight, he somehow gets her today. I rang Carlisle, and he, Edward and Emmett are getting on a plane in a couple of hours and taking Bella somewhere. Keep her safe for me, I'll be back in half an hour, start getting ready to leave." And she cut the call off, clearly feeling she was about to have another vision and needed her full attention.

"Jasper," the concern poured off of her, and a little fear. "Is everything ok?"

"It will be," I tried to reassure her, "Alice had a vision of you, and because of it Edward, Emmett and Carlisle are coming here, they'll be here in a few hours, and you're going with them somewhere safe. Is that okay?" I wanted to make sure she knew what was happening and was comfortable with the arrangements, I knew she hadn't fully forgiven Edward, but still missed him.

"I'll be fine, do we need to pack everything?"

I nodded and we moved into the room Bella had been using since we arrived. Everything was a mess and the scent of her was thick in the air, but fully manageable I found. I had the least amount of bloodlust I had felt since I was turned, and yet everyone else was constantly saying that her blood was more potent than usual. I lost myself in my thoughts as I started to pack some of her belongings and set about airing out the room so her scent would diffuse, should James come looking here. I was pulled out of my thoughts again by the shrill ringing of the phone, I picked it up and saw the number was the same one Bella had called earlier yesterday to tell her mother to ring her. Obviously her mother had checked the message late and rung straight away. It was a little odd though that her mother would ring in the early hours of the morning.

"Your mother." I said quietly as I handed Bella the phone, before I left the small bedroom and returned to watching the television to give Bella some privacy. I adjusted the volume so muffle the sound of the phone and Bella, but of course I could still hear her, I just didn't pay any attention. I felt Bella become more distressed as the phone call continued, and I guessed Renee wanted to return home but Bella convinced her to stay away. She returned after a couple of minutes and handed me the phone, saying she was headed for the shower. I guessed she missed her mother and was worried.

...

**A.N.: **This one is a little long compared to the others, but I felt like I should just put all of the time they spent in the hotel room all together, not stretch it out too long and make it drag on, and it is mostly filler and explanations so it all just fit together.

Thanks for reading.

xx


	6. Chapter 6

**I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You**

**Chapter 6**

We were flying through Phoenix now at least twice the speed limit in a stolen car. It was a nice car too, a Porsche something-or-other, but it was in a terrible shade of bright yellow. Maybe after this was all done I would be able to convince Alice to buy one of these and I could borrow it some time. I didn't particularly want a car, I didn't drive them all that often. I needed to focus.

Bella had managed to slip away from me in the airport. I had failed at protecting her. Alice told me not to let her out of my sight. But Bella had made a run for it. She wanted to get some breakfast and had asked me to come with her because she was feeling a little- something. I wasn't sure exactly what she was feeling. It was a chaotic mess of emotions and it wasn't normal. So I went with her. As we walked passed a few cafés she needed to use the bathroom and quickly ducked in. Then my phone rang.

"Jasper, she ran out the other door, go, catch her!" Alice pleaded with me. So I did, I ran. Unfortunately I had to run at a quick human pace, but I did run straight through the women's bathroom to save the extra time it would take to run around the part of the airport it was in.

Unfortunately that attracted the attention of a security officer standing outside the door on the other side. And coupled with my running, he assumed I had done something. And just as I saw Bella run into the elevator, three other security officers surrounded me. Fuck.

I managed to smooth talk my way out of that, but by that time we had lost Bella and the other's flight was landing. Alice stayed inside to find them, while I found us a car. I didn't care that there were too many of us to properly fit in the car, I just cared that it was the fastest car around here and people could sit on top of each other for all I cared at that point. I just needed to find Bella.

Edward punched me in the back of the head as we all piled in the car. I didn't care, I deserved it for letting her out of my sight, exactly what Alice told me not to do. Edward took the driver's seat, and Emmett got the front passenger because of his large size, and Carlisle, Alice and I squeezed into the back. It was a good thing that we were a close family.

By the time we reached the dance studio that Alice had seen, and we had all read the letter she left for Edward, apologising for her death that we were now trying to prevent. As we raced out of the car I heard the sound of shattering glass and a scream, followed by a feral growl. A scream was good, it meant her lungs were functioning enough to keep her alive for now. We weren't too late, yet.

We rushed in, Emmett and I ran straight for James, who was looking far more feral than he had been when we first saw him, and with a growl we pulled him into the room next door, away from the blood, where we were able to start to pull him apart. He said only one thing before we removed his head.

"Too late freaks, I already bit her!" And he was dead, I threw his head in the fire, like so many others I had killed before.

Emmett and I returned to the room where Bella was, and holding our breath began to destroy evidence. I found a video camera with a blinking light showing it was recording, so I turned it off and threw it to Emmett to keep, he threw it in a backpack that I hadn't noticed him wearing before. Then I turned to look at the small cluster of people at the other end of the room.

Bella was weakly thrashing about on the ground, muttering about fire in her hand, but other than that she didn't seem entirely lucid. Carlisle was quickly suturing a large gash on her head, just inside her hairline which she must have cut on the mirror fragments that were everywhere. Alice had used a couple of people's belts and a piece of wood to splint Bella's leg which looked like it had a nasty break, and was now applying pressure to stop the bleeding. But what shocked me most was the sight of a bite mark on the inside of her small, pale wrist.

I would have noticed the shape of a vampire bite mark anywhere, I had enough of them covering my skin. Every time I looked at my own arms or at my face in a mirror, the bites where the first thing I noticed. And now Bella would have one to mar her beautiful skin for all eternity too. By biting her James had left her with a permanent reminder of her own personal hell which was this past few days of running and hiding, and know this scene in the ballet studio that should have held good memories from her childhood.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the conversation over Bella's withering body.

"…back out, there is still time." Carlisle gently spoke, his calm voice never wavering in the crisis.

"What if I can't stop?" Edward questioned.

"You have to, you are strong enough." Carlisle answered. Alice wasn't speaking, clearly holding her breath out of both concern for her new best friend and worry over losing control.

Then it hit me. They were talking about sucking the venom back out. It could work, if they got the other bleeding all over her to stop. But they were talking about Edward doing it. He had the self-control to do this under normal circumstances, he had trained as a doctor a few times and would even be a brilliant surgeon. But Bella was his singer. Carlisle and Alice were trying to keep the bleeding controlled, and couldn't do it, so it had to be Edward. I spoke up from where I stood at the other end of the room, taking care to not breathe in any of her scent.

"You have to Edward, and I'll pull you off if you can't stop." I had really come to care for Bella, and knew this was the best way. She would probably end up being a vampire in a few years, but she had too many loose ends to tie up before making the transformation. She deserved more time, and not to be transformed in such a state of terror.

"Thank you Jasper." He replied before picking her hand up gently and whispering into her ear that he would make it go away, before he placed his mouth gently over the existing bite mark and reopened it.

I sent as many positive, reassuring emotions at him as I could, even trying to mask the thirst he felt towards Bella. But there is only so much you can do when a vampire tastes the blood of their singer.

"Stop Edward! It's gone, she's clean!" Alice spoke for the first time. I ran towards them, knowing he wasn't stopping.

"You're killing her!" Carlisle was slightly panicked now, he didn't want to lose his newest daughter. I decided to step in then.

"Edward!" I growled as I grabbed his wrists, "It is time to stop, you will kill her!" I sent as much fear as I could to him and it was enough to break the contact between his mouth and her delicate wrist. I pulled at his wrists, trying to get him to let go, and successfully removed his right hand from her, but he struggled then, and in the process of me fighting for control over him, I heard Bella's wrist snap.

Then something in me snapped at Edward and I sent so many negative and lethargic feelings towards him he slumped and I dragged him out of the front of the building. Emmett was out there and I thrust Edward towards him.

"Run north east to Tonto, there are bears. He needs to hunt, now!" I growled at my brothers before heading back inside to assess the damage caused by our family.

The building was all but destroyed and the other room now heading towards becoming an inferno, so I went back to Carlisle.

"You need to get out of here with Bella. I'll destroy all the evidence here, burn it down." I wasn't messing around. We had eliminated the threat and now I was sincerely concerned for Bella's wellbeing.

"Jasper," Alice addressed me, "You need to go with Carlisle, we have the bleeding stopped and you wouldn't be able to hurt Bella even if you tried. Trust me. You need to get her to the hospital near the hotel, and I will fabricate the evidence there to say she fell down the stairs and through a window. I'll see you soon." And she danced out of the dance studio, off to cover more tracks.

Carlisle picked Bella up gently and carefully moved out of the studio, into a car Emmett seemed to have found for us. It was a simple, black Ford. No frills, no one would question it, unlike the one we stole to bring us here. As he placed her in the back seat laying across the seat and his lap, I quickly lit a few more objects on fire and ran to the car for the drive to the hospital. At least now we were all safe.

…**..**

**A.N.: **Sorry it's a bit short, but the next chapter or so acts as a sort of epilogue slash ending to this part of the story- the end of Twilight essentially. A lot happens there and it wouldn't work together with this one. I'm not really any good at visualising and writing fight scenes, so sorry there aren't any more details about it.

xx


	7. Chapter 7

**I Followed Her, and She Lead Me to You**

**Chapter 7**

It was now two months exactly, to the day, since we had fought James in Phoenix, and life was not quite the same, but a new form of normal. Edward and Bella were still dating, but had both separately come to the conclusion that it was not as intense as they thought their relationship would have been. It was a similar relationship to what Alice and I had, in the way that they were both aware they weren't mates, rather just companions. The main difference between Alice and I, and Bella and Edward, was that Alice and I were aware of it from the beginning, and had spent a long time together building a strong relationship. Bella and Edward, not so much.

Our new definition of a 'normal' life included a few differences, mainly because of Bella. In James' attack she had suffered a badly broken leg, broken ribs, a cracked skull, and multiple cuts and bruises, as well as the broken wrist inflicted by Edward and the severe blood loss. She was a mess, and because of this we adapted.

Almost as soon as we made it to the hospital and Bella was being treated, I headed back to the hotel to collect our things and wait for Emmett and Edward, and to ask Alice about what we were going to do. Emmett and I needed to head back to Forks and be seen around town, and to help get everything ready for when everyone returned, so we ran back. But the whole way I couldn't shake this feeling that I was heading in the wrong direction, like something was pulling on me, trying to make me go south, back to Phoenix. I confided in Emmett on the run back, and when I described the feeling he admitted it was how he felt when he was away from Rose. Did that mean it was pulling me towards my mate? That my mate was back down south? I decided to keep with the original plan and ask Alice later. She knew who my mate was, she would tell me what to do and where I needed to be to find them.

Once back in Forks I helped out with making up a guest room at our house for Bella, should she need to stay with us for any reason, and also helped Esme clear up a few things at Bella and her father's house to make things easier for them when Bella returned. Esme cooked a few weeks' worth of food for them and froze it all, knowing Bella would be unable to help out in the kitchen for some time, and I helped by clearing out a few things in both Bella's room and the bathroom so it would be easier for her to move about. Once she could move.

Of course we didn't break in to the house to do this, Esme called Chief Swan a number of times to ask about how Bella was, and offered to do this all for him. He was so grateful for this, and also for Alice's offer to help Bella with showering and dressing for the next few weeks until she could do it herself. She was going to be pretty reliant on others for a while, something I think she had always tried to avoid. She would just need to get used to it.

Bella recovered quite well, and gained her usual independence after about a month, when her broken wrist was healed enough that she was out of that cast and into a brace. She had now been free of that brace completely for a week and a half. Getting rid of it was good for her relationship with Edward because they were no longer reminded constantly that Edward had lost control. Bella had confided in me that she was mostly conscious at that point, and had been absolutely terrified Edward was going to drain her. It put some strain on their relationship because Edward didn't know, he thought she was completely unconscious at that point. Mine and Bella's relationship had grown though, and we had become quite close friends, we were able to talk about anything, and she now knew everything about me, and I her, and she even managed to distract me from the annoying pulling I had continued to feel since Phoenix. Although now it wasn't pulling me south, so maybe my mate was in Forks? Alice wouldn't tell me.

It was prom night tonight. And like usual, we were all going, although this time was the first time Edward had a date he wanted. One time in Alaska a few decades ago he had taken Tanya along, simply to stop the rumours around school about him, but that backfired because then Tanya was only more encouraged. But tonight we were all going with partners of our own choosing. It was a little bittersweet for Alice and I, we knew that if our mates were only around the corner, this would be our last prom together, but again I couldn't think of anyone else I would rather be with.

I had dropped Alice at Bella's house earlier today so she would help her get ready, and Edward and I would go and pick our dates up from there. It was strange to go and pick up my date, normally for prom we would just get ready in our bedroom together. Often taking hours longer than we should have because we got distracted by each other. Alice and I would always have fun, but this milestone of net taking so long to get ready because she wasn't here in our room was strange, and marked the beginning of the end for our marriage. I would always love Alice, but I could feel it fading because of the mate thing. Maybe I should speak with her soon. Maybe the two of us could go hunting tomorrow and talk about it privately, without people listening in.

"Jasper, you ready yet?" Edward called out from the living room, signalling that it was time for us to leave.

As we pulled out the driveway in Edward's Volvo he turned to look at me.

"Thank you for looking after Bella in Phoenix, you did a good job, and I don't blame you for letting her out of your sight." He both sounded sincere, and his emotions supported this.

"I was only trying to protect her, thank you for trusting me with her. When she suggested that Alice and I go with her, I thought you would've said no. At least to me going. Although I knew you weren't too happy with Alice and her ideas of how much Bella should have known." I answered aloud, even after over half a century I found it unnerving to only answer with my thoughts, having a silent conversation.

"You're right, I wasn't happy with the idea of Bella knowing everything, but it was the right thing for her to know. It would have been disastrous if James had gotten to her before she knew everything. Bella never would have forgiven me." Edward took an unnecessary deep breath then, trying to calm down before he spoke about whatever else was on his mind.

"And thank you for pulling me off of her. I couldn't control myself, and if you hadn't reacted when you did I would have killed her. You saved her life."

"Well what else could I have done? I wasn't going to let her die. It was a no-brainer really." I was confused as the where he was taking the conversation.

"But it wasn't though. No one would have questioned you if you hadn't have stayed in the room; there was so much blood. Even Alice was struggling with the scent of it and yet you hardly seemed to notice."

Well that wasn't true, I had felt the intense bloodlust from being in the ballet studio, it just never occurred to me to attack and react to the feelings.

"Alice has never told you much about your mate, has she?" Well that was a sudden change in conversation Edward. "Not really, I know about that pulling feeling you have felt. First it pulled you to Phoenix when you came back to Forks, right? And now it is pulling you somewhere in Forks, but not always, when you are at school, or a couple of other places with humans around it stops. What does that tell you Jasper?" Edward was acting strangely, why was he talking to me about my mate?

"Do you know who my mate is Edward? Have you seen her in Alice's visions?" Maybe he was trying to tell me.

"Yeah I know who she is, and she's great for you. Just don't rush it, let her set the pace, she is still very young." His emotions were interesting as he told me this. There was a little sadness but he was also happy, either for me or the girl. But what girls did he know that were young, and would be concerned about. There was only one.

I saw Edward smile a little as I thought of this girl. But no, it couldn't be her could it? She was happily in a relationship wasn't she?

"You haven't paid much attention to Bella and I together since we came back from Phoenix, have you? Not our emotions anyway. Things haven't been the same, and a week ago we had a long conversation, when we spent the day in the meadow together. We are going to prom together, but then that is it for our relationship. It isn't working for either of us." This is where I could feel the sadness coming from. He truly loved her, but not in the way he should.

And he was right, I hadn't paid attention to their emotions when they were together for the last couple of months. And was Bella truly my mate? I definitely needed to speak to Alice tomorrow. If it was true it would be unfair to Alice if we stayed together any longer. I just hoped that I didn't hurt Alice too much.

We had reached Bella's house by now and made our way to the front door to meet our dates, and for each of the two couples here it would be the last big date. The thought was slightly saddening, but I could feel that the two girls inside were excited for tonight, and it wasn't like neither of them knew this was the beginning of the end. Edward raised his hand and gently knocked on the front door of the small house. We heard Charlie slowly get up, off of the couch and moved towards the front door, grumbling quietly about how Edward was 'no good for Bella'. At this I had to hold back my laugh as this was exactly what everyone thought, especially Edward. I just hoped that if Bella was the one for me, Charlie would like me a little more. Edward smirked at me as if to say 'he will'.

Charlie let us into the house, giving Edward a cold and stiff handshake, whereas mine was much warmer and friendlier. He really did like me better, mostly because he blamed Edward for making Bella run away to Phoenix, and therefore blamed him for her injuries. I however was good in his mind because I helped out around his house while Bella was in hospital, and while she was still unable to do anything herself, I would accompany Alice around here when she was helping Bella shower, and help out around the house. I even carried Bella up and down the stairs as needed which Charlie was extremely grateful for. Of course Alice could have done it, and she did when Charlie was at work, but it would have looked very strange to Charlie to see little Alice carrying Bella.

We sat in the living room for a few minutes, I talked with Charlie for a while, and he continuously glared at Edward, until we heard the girls move towards the stairs and we moved towards the bottom of the stairs. Alice danced down first, before Bella was in sight, and if I had the ability to have my breath taken away I would have lost it then. She was wearing a skin tight, short black dress with long sleeves and multiple geometric cut outs all over. It was one of the sexiest things I had ever seen her wearing, other than nothing of course. She danced towards me, her short hair bouncing in curls around her face and a huge smile. I pulled her into my arms and have her a chaste kiss as to not smear her bright red lipstick all over us.

"You look stunningly beautiful." I spoke softly in her ear.

"Not too mad yourself, although I have trained you well to always dress yourself well enough." She spoke loud enough that Charlie could hear, earning a chuckle, before she spoke softer, only for me to hear. "Let's talk tomorrow, I had a vision of you realising, and she will realise very soon. Let's just have fun tonight." And with that Alice pulled my face down to hers and kissed me again before she turned, wrapping my arms around her, to see Bella's big entrance.

She appeared at the top of the stairs hesitantly, looking as if she would rather be somewhere else, but astonishingly beautiful. My heart should have been thumping in my chest just at the sight of her. Her slender body was accentuated beautifully by the dark blue dress Alice had chosen for her, and the one silver heeled sandal elongated the leg we could see. Her other leg was hidden in her walking cast, but other than that you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at her that she had almost died two months ago.

She slowly made her way downstairs where her dad hugged her and told her to have a good night, before Edward kissed her on the cheek before presenting her with a small flower corsage. That reminded me I had one to give Alice, which I promptly secured to her wrist with a kiss to the back of her hand.

We left Charlie and Bella's soon after that, with a promise to keep Bella safe as she would be coming to our place afterwards for a 'sleepover' with Alice. Of course Bella would be the only one sleeping, and then tomorrow was the day of the double break up. I felt terrible thinking about it, but the inevitability of it was nearly comforting, I knew what was happening and there were no more surprises.

We quickly arrived at the school, where the prom was being held, and made our way to the ticket booth by the front door. The school was decorated in horribly clichéd style; balloon arched and crepe paper everywhere in varying pastel colours. Every prom I had been to in my very long life had been decorated in the exact same way. Maybe next time I needed to convince Alice to be on the prom committee so it would be decorated to a reasonable standard. Edward chuckled under his breath at that. Apparently I was being funny.

"Not just you." He answered, loud enough that Bella heard.

"What's going on?" She asked, oblivious to our silent exchange.

"Tyler was under the impression that he was taking you to prom and has turned up looking for you, after going to your house to collect you." All four of us laughed quietly as we saw Tyler move towards the ticket booth, and wanting to avoid a confrontation, Alice moved us into the gym while I sent some calming feelings towards Tyler. Prom night wasn't the time to have confrontation.

Immediately after we entered we found Emmett and Rosalie, they were commanding the dance floor after having scared off any other potential dancers. Alice and I immediately made our way into the middle and began to dance. It was a modern song, but still had the required beat to waltz to, so we did, as did Em and Rose. Bella argued with Edward that she couldn't dance, and yet he still pulled her out, and carefully placed her small feet on his larger ones, allowing her to move more gracefully. I was incredibly happy to be dancing with my wife, but I couldn't help but feel jealous of Edward. I wanted to dance with Bella.

After just two songs, Edward took Bella outside as one of the young boys from the reservation was there to speak with her. Not wanting to leave the two of them alone with a possible wolf we all took a break from dancing and stood in a small group near the exit they left from, trying to look as if we needed a break and were having a conversation. We could hear the boy, Jacob I believe, trying to warn Bella to stay away from Edward and that he was dangerous. Bella simply laughed at him and said that he shouldn't worry anymore and could pass on the message that Edward and her were no longer together and then she turned and walked back inside.

The night continued on as normal after that, we had our prom photos taken, we danced with our dates, and swapped dates for a few dances, so I was eventually able to dance with Bella, and the two of us wore ridiculously wide smiles as we did so, earning some strange looks from other people. I didn't think that Bella was aware of the bond we apparently had between the two of us, but in that moment I knew she had become aware. As I twirled her around, careful to keep most of her weight off of her broken leg, her heartbeat increased, and her emotions became calmer, more peaceful and happier. Apparently I started to project these feelings unconsciously because the whole room became calmer and many couples began to declare and demonstrate their love. Unfortunately, because I sent out so much of these feelings, I had trouble controlling them, so we decided to leave the prom, although it was a little early.

There was another hour left of the prom, but we had already had photos taken and danced, and Bella was beginning to tire, so we left. This time Alice and I rode in Rosalie's red BMW with her and Emmett, while Bella and Edward took his car.

"So what's up with you and Belly-Boo?" Emmett questioned as we left, using the nickname he had given Bella shortly after she returned from Phoenix, a sign that he had accepted her into the family.

"It's none of your business Emmett, and I will need to speak with Bella before I speak to you about it." I lightly growled; getting possessive of Bella even only hours after I had realised my feelings towards her.

"Alright, alright, just be careful with my little sisters." Emmett may have been the youngest in the family, but he definitely took the role of big brother very seriously, especially towards Alice and now Bella.

"Jasper will, won't you," Rosalie began with a slightly feral smile on her face, "Emmett's not the only one who wants to protect the human." And with that I knew she had accepted Bella into our family, even if she didn't full like her. She knew Bella was important to the family and losing her could destroy the family.

…**..**

**A.N.: **So Jasper knows, and Bella is about to figure it out, YAY! I hope you have enjoyed it so far, here is where it really deviates from the original story quite a bit. Thank you for sticking reading part one of the story, I really appreciate any feedback what-so-ever.

The next part (New Moon and Eclipse events with a twist) will be up as soon as I have written it, within the next month. It only took me a month to write this, so I will write the next bit at the same speed.

Thanks,

xx


	8. Chapter 8

**I Followed Her, and She Led Me to You**

**Chapter 8**

The night of prom, after getting home and changed into hunting appropriate clothes, Alice and I had left the house for a weekend alone. We needed to talk, to spend some time alone and decide what exactly was happening now. We ran to a little clearing we often went to, it was in the middle of the forest, miles away from anyone, and all ours. Everyone had a space like this, where they could just be together. I sat at the edge of our little clearing, it was no bigger than our bedroom at home, leaning up against a large oak tree with my legs out in front of me. Alice gracefully danced up to me and sat between my legs, her back against my chest, and my arms wrapped around her tiny waist.

"I don't want to hurt you Ali, you have been my life for so long and you deserve so much better. I'm sorry."

"Don't you dare apologise for finding a new form of happiness Jazz, and don't you worry about me. I have known this was coming since I woke up, and we will always be in each other's lives, just differently than we have been." She seemed so sincere, but how could she be so ok with this, I was supposed to be ending our half century marriage.

"I will always feel remorse for this Alice, I love you and I always will, and I can't help that it's changing. It's killing me Ali." I hated that I needed to hurt the one I loved the most to forge a relationship with the one I would love even more.

"Well don't. I'm a big girl Jazz, I can handle it. It's not like we didn't know, just now you've noticed. It's just going to be a little shock to adjust." I was glad she had admitted about the shock, at least I knew I wasn't imagining the feeling I thought I was getting from her. There was a little sadness, but mostly a sense of eager anticipation that left me tingling with excitement at the thought of what was happening.

"So was I right, is it Bella?" I needed to know, it would be terrible if I was wrong and it wasn't Bella and I messed that all up.

"Yeah it is. You aren't annoyed that I kept it from you, are you?"

"No, if you had told me from the start I wouldn't have believed you, and probably managed to mess it all up. But this way I was able to get to know her first and become friends."

"Good. But be careful with her, she is rather young and quite inexperienced at the whole dating thing, and to just announce to her that she is your mate and you are going to be together forever would definitely scare her." Alice warned me.

"I know, I'll give her my utmost respect and treat her like a fuckin' queen, if that's what she wants."

Alice laughed at me, "I know you would, but I think Bella is actually pretty low maintenance, definitely a good choice for you. Just be a gentleman and slowly court her and she will fall head over heels for you."

And she was right. Just in the past couple of months Bella and I had formed an easy friendship where we could just be ourselves and it was comfortable. Bella knew most of my past, although I hadn't gone into detail about my time with Maria or shown her my scars, and I knew a lot about her past. We didn't feel the need to censor ourselves around each other the way I could see Bella censoring herself around Edward. And I didn't just mean censoring swearing, although both Bella and I were comfortable with a small amount, but her behaviour. Around Edward she was very reserved and quiet and always apologising for something she had done. Part of that was she was aware of how her blood affected him, but even little things like she would apologise for looking at something of his, or asking a simple question. She didn't do that around me at all. Apart from the one time we were hanging out and she walked into a wall and apologised to the wall as a reflex. Silly Bella.

"So what do you say soldier," Alice said in a mock serious tone, using her nickname no one else used for me, "one last roll in the hay? Or grass seeing as we're in our clearing." She was quietly giggling by the end of her sentence, completely aware of how stupid she sounded trying to be serious.

"Well anything for you ma'am." I replied, laying on the accent as thick as I could without laughing as well.

"Good," she replied as she spun around to face me, taking my face in her little hands, "coz neither of us is gonna get any for a while after tonight." Her accent even came through more than usual, normally she kept it fairly hidden claiming it made her sound stupid, but when she was feeling especially lustful it always came through.

So we, like so many clichéd couples from proms all over the world, spent our prom night together, although unlike all of those teenagers, it was not our first time and it wasn't awkward and uncomfortable. It was our good bye to each other after so long together. We spent the night under the stars in each-other's arms demonstrating our love in the most intimate ways we knew. I loved the feeling of Alice's soft, unblemished skin against my own, harder, scarred skin. But this would be that last time. This was truly it.

Sometime after dawn, when the clouds had finally covered the sun again, giving us a good day to be in public, we began to make our way back home although we looked far more dishevelled than when we left the night before. I had accidentally torn Alice's shirt clean in half, and she had thrown mine into a muddy puddle, so we had left them there in our field, under a rock where we could come and get them later. We didn't feel like taking our ruined clothing with us right now. We found a couple of deer as we dawdled home and had a quick hunt, although we had hunted in the days before prom so we looked our best, not tired and crabby like we did when we were hungry. It was the middle of the morning by the time we saw the house again, and we had a plan for what we were going to do today.

We were surprised however by the sound of loud laughs as we made our way to the front door of the house. Apparently Bella had decided to eat her late breakfast on the front porch accompanied by Emmett, and they were the ones to see us emerge from the trees at a human pace.

"Had a good night then, you two?" Emmett called out, which was obvious due to me being dressed in only my jeans, and Alice in her jean shorts and bra.

"It was fantastic thank you. Now I would like to head inside and get changed." Alice politely said as she made her way to the stairs to the door.

"Get changed? I think you mean get dressed!" Bella giggled.

"Oh har-har, at least we are getting some!" Alice joked around with Bella. It was no secret that Edward had pretty much rejected Bella's advances. That was partly why things started to go so rocky in their relationship, he wouldn't compromise at all.

We all laughed and that distracted Emmett from blocking the door long enough that Alice was able to dart in, and up to our room to find some clothes. Bella was obviously a little uncomfortable with the casual attitude we had about others seeing us in a state of undress. I guess she would just have to get used to that if she was going to be around us for any length of time, it was difficult to get proper privacy when everyone had superhuman senses; that was why everyone had a meadow of clearing or something that they used for nights together.

I stayed on the porch a little longer talking with Emmett and Bella, just asking about their plans for the day. They were going to play some video games for a while and have a bit of a movie day. Emmett felt the need to look after his little sister while she was still unable to do some things due to her broken leg, and now that she and Edward had broken up he felt the need to let her have what he thought was a stereotypical teenage girl 'after breakup' day. Just killing things in video games and watching movies where things get killed. He may be old, but he was more in touch with what actual teenagers did than anyone else in the family.

I had been out here for a while before I noticed Bella was quieter than normal and not really contributing to the conversation. Then I started to feel her emotions. Slight confusion, and a bucket load of lust. Almost enough to send me flying. Why was she suddenly feeling so much intense lust? I quickly peaked out of the corner of my eye to look at her, and her gaze was stuck on my naked chest and stomach. She felt that for me?

"Jazz man, where are you?" Emmett questioned impatiently.

"Nowhere, here. Listening. What?" I was babbling again.

"Well you were clearly somewhere that had strong emotions because you haven't responded in over a minute, and now you are babbling like a girl."

"Fuck off Emmett." He was pissing me off and I couldn't concentrate properly, so I walked off with a quick, "See you later Bella." I needed to get changed so I could go out with Alice.

As we were no longer together, Alice and I decided to stop wearing our wedding rings. We had always worn them, on our hands at home and in places where people didn't think we were teenagers at the local school, and on a chain around our necks for school and places we needed to be discrete. But now, we felt it would become strange to wear them all the time, but it would be worse to not wear them. So we were going to Seattle to a jeweller to have them remade into other jewellery. Alice was going to have her engagement ring which has a large ruby with several small diamonds surrounding it made into a pendant, and her wedding ring and current chain made into a newer one to wear the pendant on. I was going for a simple gold chain, made thicker than my current one buy adding in the gold from my wedding ring. This way we could continue to wear the jewellery we had given each other as a promise of our love, without giving our future partners a reminder of our past lovers. But it was still hard to destroy something that was a part of our everyday routine.

We drove to Seattle quickly, borrowing Edward's Volvo because neither of us had our own, and Alice didn't feel like taking my motorbike, and found a good jeweller. He wondered why the two of us, obviously so young, had matching rings we wanted to have remade, but with some bullshit story about Alice being my step sister and our parents recently dying, he seemed to be okay with changing the jewellery. I think he was just concerned that we were trying to hide something, such as a Vegas wedding from our family. A good enough concern really, if I were in his position I wouldn't want angry parents blaming me for something their stupid kids did.

We left our precious jewellery with him and went shopping for a couple of hours. He said it wouldn't take too long as he wasn't doing anything else for the day; business was slow and he was worried that cheaper factory made jewellery was killing his business. Alice and I decided we should think about having separate rooms, and for that we needed to buy some things for ourselves. I offered to move into my own room as Alice had far more things than I did, especially clothes. And Alice was extremely grateful for that.

I decided I didn't need a bed for my room, which would be the study that was next to our room I the Forks house. When Esme was designing the house Alice had ensured there was another room that someone would be able to have if the time came while we were in Forks. And I guess it did. So now we were browsing a number of couches in all sorts of colours and fabrics and styles and sizes, for the perfect one for my room. Alice had insisted that we try every one, and even made me lay on a few to measure if I could comfortably or not, and finally we settled on one. It was a large, modern but comfortable three seater lounge in a soft neutral coloured leather. Alice said it was perfect for the current colour scheme, but I didn't really care. All I cared about was that I could lay on it to read, or to cuddle with someone. Shit my mind kept going back to things like that, and always about Bella. I needed to stop, I had only broken up with my wife a few hours ago.

Because we had gone to a specialty furniture place, apparently, we needed to give them time to make the couch to our specifications, so we could pick it up in a week's time, until then I would have to make do.

By the time we had ordered and paid for the couch we had received a call from the jeweller saying he was done, so we picked up our remodelled rings and started the drive back to Forks. It hit me then, it was over. No more me and Alice, only the future now, and for the first time since I had met Alice all those years ago, I was alone again.

"Don't worry love," damn I must have projected my worry, "we only have a month of school left, and then you are free to court Bella full time." Alice was so happy for me, I couldn't help but feel it too. I really loved her, but now it had changed, I felt the love for my soul mate, I just hoped that she loved me back and we could start our forever.

…..

**A.N.: **Thanks for all the amazing feedback for the first part. So far only a couple of reviews, but the amount of follows and favourites has been amazing, and inspired me to write more. Thank you, I'll update again very soon.

xx


	9. Chapter 9

**I Followed Her, and She Led Me to You**

**Chapter 9**

Summer break was finally here and we could spend it doing whatever we wanted without having to deal with school and teachers. School was starting to grate on my nerves more than ever. I had never been a big fan of the constant repeating of high school, but I shut up and continued with it because I understood it was necessary for us to do so in order to remain inconspicuous in the community. But even now that I had a reason to be at school, to see Bella, I was beginning to really resent it. Which is why I was so happy it was summer break.

Since prom things had been a little strange in the house, everyone was trying to tiptoe around the fact that Alice and I had broken up; except for Alice and I. No one else seemed to understand that we were ok, and genuinely happy for ourselves and one another. No one was particularly wary that Bella and Edward had broken up though. They still got to behave normally and no one was weird about it. Well except for Bella's human friends.

The first day back at school after prom Bella had sat at lunch with Angela and Jessica and their friends to be polite and ask everyone how their prom night went. She got all of the details which bored her endlessly, but she felt the need to endure it. Then, when asked about how her night with Edward went, and if anything happened, Bella had come clean and said that they had broken up. I think all of the girls were expecting Bella to be torn up about it and were a bit taken aback that she wasn't. But for all of the boys she knew, even the ones who were supposed to be dating someone, it was game on again. I nearly had to rip out a few throats when the lustful feelings got too bad. Edward just sat in his chair growling for the rest of lunch. He was kind of jealous.

After the first day back after prom, the gossip started and it effected Bella horribly. First it was Lauren, who was possibly the most malicious teenage girl I had come across, constantly asking Bella about Edward. First they seemed to be normal sort of questions like 'what did you do around each other?' and other harmless questions. Then they become more malicious like 'were you too frigid? Didn't give him what he wanted?' At first Bella tried to ignore it, but it hit her hard and took a toll. The final straw came when Lauren started to suggest that she would be more suited to giving Edward what he needed. I nearly ripped out her throat for how she was treating my Bella. Other students started to say things like this after Lauren suggested it, but luckily they didn't say it to Bella's face like Lauren did, although Bella was definitely aware of what was happening.

And because all the gossip affected her so negatively, we all just focused on being her friends when at school, letting her vent her frustrations and not taking anything to heart. After Lauren's comments one day at lunch Bella cried to the point where I took her home, and Edward told the teachers she had come down sick. It was the first time any of us had seen Bella cry. And it wasn't because of the specific words that Lauren had chosen because on that day she chose relatively mild words, it was just the culmination of all the feelings she had since she met Edward, as well as the feelings and comments since Phoenix, and now all of the comments and looks since they broke up. She had never felt like she deserved Edward, and now the people who were supposed to be her friends were confirming this in her mind. It was enough to break even the strongest of humans, and Bella truly was one of them. In that state of absolute emotional turmoil Bella had come to me.

In another situation I would have been ecstatic, but her emotions were torturous. I sat at her house with her all afternoon after taking her home from school. In her living room there was one little couch and Bella sat there, curled into my side and sobbed for a couple of hours, until her dad came home. He was concerned something terrible had happened, or that Edward had done something to Bella, and I guess he was probably concerned Bella had found out she was pregnant or something. I was able to tell him most of what had happened at school recently, and he understood how much of a toll that would take on Bella. Bella fell asleep on the couch after a while, with a little help from me, but I didn't want to manipulate her emotions too much. She didn't like it when I did and I knew she needed to work her way through it.

Charlie ordered pizza and asked me to stay for dinner with him, and to not be rude, I had accepted. I ate a few pieces, enough to satisfy him, and then I carried Bella up to her room and placed her in her bed. She was exhausted and I don't think she had been sleeping well recently. When I returned to the living room, intending on saying good bye to Charlie for the night and leaving, Charlie asked me to stay and talk.

"Tell me the truth Jasper, did Edward hurt her?"

"No of course not, Charlie," in the past he had insisted I call him by his first name rather than 'sir' as I normally would have, "It was truly the comments of people at school."

"Well you just look after my little girl for me, won't you. I get the feeling you and your family are more than capable of taking care of her for me." Did he just allude to the fact he knew we were different? I would need to speak with Carlisle.

"I will, we all will. We could never abandon her, she has truly become a part of our family." I would just ignore that other bit for now.

"Thank you. You just make sure she never feels like this again, won't you Jasper." Was that a subtle threat, his emotions suggested it was. But for what? Was he perceptive enough that he could tell there was something between Bella and me? Even before there was actually anything happening between the two of us?

But it wasn't just a matter of protecting her from other people but herself as well. She had truly come to believe that she wasn't good enough for anyone, and that no one would ever want her. So from that day on it became the mission of our family to prove to Bella that she was always worth it. We included her in as much as possible, we spoke to her whenever possible, and we offered to help her study for her finals. Bella was almost always at our house when we weren't at school, or some of us were at Bella's. We all strengthened our relationships with Bella over the month between prom and summer break, and she became an integral part of our family, as important to our survival as any other member. We had gone past the point where it would be possible for us to survive without her.

Carlisle and Esme had gained another child, and their love for Bella was as strong and pure as their love for any of us in the family. They were there for her to talk to about anything, and provided any support she needed. Bella was able to have a relationship with a mother figure that she never had with her own mother, and she craved it with everything in her being. Bella loved her own mother of course, but she wanted someone to look after her, without Bella having to look after them first. She had explained to me that she was the one to make sure the bills were paid, and the car had gas, and any other expenses were taken care of, and she wanted someone to do that for her for once. And Carlisle was always there for anything. While Bella and Charlie had a good relationship, there were some things Bella wouldn't go to her father for, but could go to Carlisle if needed.

Emmett was able to be the true big brother he always tried to be for everyone in the family. But none of us needed the big brother figure, sure we liked the playfulness he brought to our sometimes dull life, but we didn't need him to fight our battles and give us brotherly advice. But Bella did, and they both loved every minute of it. He was there to relieve any tension she had with his fun, laid back attitude. After that first day after prom where Emmett and Bella had a video game and movie day, they made it a weekly occurrence. Every Sunday morning Bella would drive over, or someone would pick her up and she would have breakfast at our place, under the guise of having it with us, and they would spend at least a few hours together, depending on how much homework she needed to get finished.

Alice and Bella were still best friends, and at times were attached at the hip. Alice was worried that their relationship would be difficult to maintain once Bella and I got together, but after Bella had a nightmare in which she remembered more of the events from the ballet studio and specifically what James had told her about Alice's past, they formed a stronger bond. The week after prom they had watched the recording of the attack together and spent the following night together, locked in Alice's room, bonding over the fact that they were the two lone survivors of James. That bond was something nothing would ever get between. They continued their new found bonding through typical teenage girl things, make overs and shopping, and although Bella was not as passionate about shopping as Alice, she came to like it because she was spending time with her sister. Because that was their relationship now; they were as much sisters as Alice and Rose.

This newfound sisterhood effected Rosalie too, she could no longer claim that Bella was a danger to the family, she could see that removing Bella would damage us irreparably. So she began to get to know Bella. They were alike in some ways, they were both too stubborn for their own good, and incredibly protective over the ones they loved. So they had a tentative bond, it was growing, and Rose was getting much better at hiding her dislike when Bella walked into the room. Or maybe the dislike was actually lessening.

And Edward and Bella were friends. There wasn't much difference between their relationship now and when they were together. Just they didn't kiss anymore and Edward was even more wary about any physical contact. It was stiff and awkward, but it was them, they could both be stiff and awkward so it worked for the two of them. It made them happy they had found a good friend, although to begin with both of them had confused a good friend with a lover. They could both be idiots sometimes because of their inexperience with life; they were the babies of the family, even if Edward was one of the oldest.

And there was me. I hadn't pushed anything with Bella, but I could feel that we were both attracted to each other but I also knew that she was not ready. If we started dating, she was going to face scrutiny at school, and that was not something she was coping with now. She still saw the looks when she continued to sit with us, people talking about how she was clinging to Edward and was being possessive. Stupid humans didn't know what they were talking about. It killed me to hear all of this and see her struggle. So I was her friend for now, I listened to her when she wanted to vent, I offered her advice when she wanted it, and I was just there for her.

It was a little difficult at first to know that she was my mate and not be able to do anything about it. It was even more difficult because she didn't know, and she was a part of the family. She was there, but oblivious. Well, not totally oblivious, she had recently become more aware of me, she was even able to identify if I was near. That was strange. I had been in my room assembling a new desk I had bought, and she came over for her usual Sunday morning with us. She greeted everyone who was downstairs, being Emmett, Alice, Rose and Carlisle, and then called out to me.

"Hey Jasper, I'll come see you after I eat." She called in a voice no louder than a normal conversation, knowing I could hear.

"Hey Bella, I'll be down in a minute." I called back, before hearing Alice pass on the message as Bella hadn't heard.

"How did you know Jasper was here?" Carlisle questioned, which caught our attention. No one had really realised she had done that.

"I don't really know…." She hesitantly answered, not quite telling the truth. But why would she lie? I ran down the stairs and appeared next to her, and she didn't even flinch, she just smiled at me. It was weird.

"What do you mean you don't know?" I queried.

"I mean I don't know exactly, I just did." She was a little shocked with herself I think.

"Do you always know things like this? Or was it just now, with Jasper?" Carlisle asked.

"Only with Jasper," She blushed, knowing it wasn't a normal thing. "I can just tell when he is around."

We didn't question her any further, but we took it as conformation of her being my mate.

And now, here we were. It was summer and we had nothing to do other than be ourselves and do our own thing. Carlisle and Esme wanted to plan a family vacation of sorts, back up to Denali for a week or so and most of us wanted to go to. I as a little more hesitant than the rest, Bella wouldn't be coming with is, she had recently gotten a job at Newton's outdoor store and would be working, not that it would be an ideal holiday for a human anyway. So I was going to stay, and Emmett and Alice were also both considering it. Maybe Bella could stay with us for the week and we could work on building up her mental strength so that next year at school wouldn't be as tough as it had been at the end of this year.

"Call her now and invite her over for the week!" Alice yelled out from her room next to mine, clearly after having a vision of the week. "Emmett and I will stay as well and it will be fun! Call her now." So I guess my plans for that week had been settled, as well as Emmett and Alice's and Bella's. It would be fun, a week with my brother, Alice, and Bella.

….

**A.N.: **Sorry this is just a little bit of a filler chapter, I just wanted to set up some of the upcoming events so I didn't just launch into them.

On a more serious note, those of you who have not followed my other stories would be unaware that in the past I have struggled with both anxiety and depression, and both have had a negative impact on my writing. I'm not telling you this as a way to ask for pity, I just want people to know that if I don't post in a while with no explanations it is because of my depression. For me, my depression comes in the form of complete and total apathy (no emotions or feelings), and absolutely no motivation to do anything. Today was a pretty bad day, I didn't go to university and I didn't even have the motivation to dry my hair after a shower. It took me nine hours to write this chapter, and parts of it had been written already in the past few days. So I am sorry if the quality of my work is not the same as it has been in the past.

Sorry about the long AN, I just want people to be aware that sometimes the people we suspect the least can have the worst internal battles- not that mine is by any means the worst. I just want to ask my readers (and I know there are a lot of you because this is shaping up to be my most popular story) to be aware, and if you suspect someone you know may be depressed, or anxious, just ask them if they are ok. Just people asking that can make a huge difference because it shows that people care.

Again, sorry for the long note, and thank you for reading, please leave a review if you want to discuss any parts of the story, I really enjoy having a connection with my readers and make an effort to reply to any reviews every few days.

Thank you,

xx


	10. Chapter 10

**I Followed Her, and She Led Me to You**

**Chapter 10**

**A.N.: **This chapter talks about same sex relationships, more specifically a character is revealed to be bisexual. If you don't believe in that, I don't think this story is for you really, it becomes an important theme, but please continue to read if you are not a narrow-minded idiot. Another note at the end.

**Bella's POV**

I was looking forward to having a week with Alice, Emmett, and Jasper. Especially Jasper. Fuck he was hot! I couldn't even bring myself to feel guilty for ogling my best friend's ex-husband. I should have felt like a horrible person but I couldn't, and it wasn't like we were in a normal situation anyway. Right? And he would never look twice at me, I was a plain little human, the little sister of the family.

But no, he looked at me differently. While Emmett definitely saw me as the little sister, and was constantly trying to reinforce that relationship with our movie and video game days, and he had a similar relationship with Alice, Jasper was different. Jasper would act like a gentleman around me, and although it wasn't the same as with Edward, it was definitely the same sort of thing; not so intense though with not letting me do anything. He would help me into Emmett's Jeep, hold doors open for me, and little things like kiss my hand. Maybe he was starting to see me differently. But I knew it wouldn't last long, his mate was nearby and there was no way I could compete with that.

I could tell that Jasper was nearby, so I carefully ran down the stairs, hearing the Jeep pull into the drive as I did and opened the front door just as Jasper was about to knock. Jasper helped me to carry my duffle bag to the car, and Emmett took the bag from the kitchen with the ingredients to make choc chip cookies, I wanted to teach them how to cook and cookies would be a good simple place to start.

Emmett drove us back in his monster truck, at almost twice the speed limit, which still terrified me but Jasper's presence beside me managed to calm me enough to enjoy the ride. Driving at their speed was almost as good as running with them, not that I had really done that for a while. Maybe I would have to suggest to someone that they should take me for a run this week. I'd ask later as Alice already had a day planned of 'Bella Barbie', great. At least now she wouldn't be getting me ready for some surprise, expensive date as I was single. I would love to not be single, if the other half of that was Jasper.

Wow! Where the fuck did that thought come from? I mean he was hot, and friendly, and smart, and I had a great time with him and he was basically amazing. And wow, I had feelings for a man that was a part of my adopted family and should have been a brother to me but I didn't even want to think about that. So I wouldn't. I would just focus on having a great week with my new family, and forget about what had been going on at school. Because that was what this week was about, making me feel like I really was a part of this family.

They hadn't specifically told me that was the purpose of this week with them, and I don't know if it was the original purpose, but I was pretty smart and I managed to work it out. Then I had asked Edward a couple of days ago when he was driving me home after spending the day at their house. I knew they all cared for me, even Rosalie did and she had warmed up to me a little since I had broken up with Edward, but I was still sure she didn't want me to become a vampire. I think she was missing all the possibilities she could have had as a human. I wasn't completely sure of the circumstances of her change, but I knew it wasn't what she wanted and she hadn't been happy for the first few years of her second life, only finding happiness after finding Emmett. I was just happy that they all seemed to accept me to some degree. I was happy with them, they made it easy to forget about the horrible things happening; I had found that I hadn't even worried about Victoria, and where she might be or what she was planning, because I was sure she would do something after the family killed her mate. I knew vampires were particularly protective of their mates.

Thinking about mates just made me think of Jasper again for some reason. And then it hit me. I was thinking about him and mates because I wished it was me. I wanted him to fall for me. It would be so easy, we could talk about anything, we were always comfortable around each other with no awkward times, and he was the most perfect person I could think of. I wanted him, and it hurt to know that I would never have him because he belonged to another girl somewhere and she was about to make herself known. I felt a pang of sadness, it would be difficult to see him with someone else.

"You alright?" He spoke softly, his accent turning my legs to jelly, good thing I was sitting in the car still after having just arrived.

"Fine, why?"

"You can't lie to an empath, darlin'" He replied as he helped me step down from the ridiculously huge car. "You were feeling sad, and like you lost hope on something. Never give up hope, it can be a great emotion to help you through tough times. Never give up hope, on anything, you might be surprised at what could happen." And he gently placed his right hand on my cheek and using his thumb swept away a stray tear that I hadn't noticed.

"Alright, I won't give up hope." But he didn't know what it was for, he probably thought it was to do with the comments people were making at school. If he knew I had given up the hope, which had formed without my permission, that he would ever want me, I was sure he would awkward and embarrassed around me forever. Yeah let's not do that. At least this way he would still be my friend.

"Well, let's get you inside, Alice has the day planned for you, and Emmett and I are going hunting." He said as he grabbed my bag out of the car and took my hand, leading my to the house I considered my second home.

"You don't look all that thirsty." I casually commented as I looked at his still golden eyes.

"I'm not really, Em is a bit, but we wanted to give you two some privacy. Or Alice told us we needed to actually." He laughed, it was a great sound. A little bit throaty, deep, and comforting, different to Edward's musical laugh, and very different to the bass booming that was Emmett's.

"Well, have fun, hunting sounds much better than 'Bella Barbie'!" We walked the rest of the way to Alice's room in a comfortable silence. We both enjoyed the quiet, although I'm sure the quiet was much louder to Jasper than it was to me.

…

I had a good day with Alice, it wasn't what I had expected it to be. When Jasper dropped me off at his old room to leave my bag for me, Alice was sitting in the middle of her very large bed in a purple silk robe that fell halfway down her thighs, playing with something on her computer.

"Bella! You're here!" And she jumped to her feet and danced to me, pulling me into her arms for a hug, her usual greeting.

"I'm here, what have you got planned?" I replied as she let go, pulling me to her bed and shutting the door on Jasper, clearly telling him it was girls only now, no boys allowed.

"A bit of fun, that's all. Firstly, any preferences for music?"

"Not really, I'm not fussy, just no country." I needed to add that, there was no telling what sort of music any of the Cullen's were into, and I really hated country.

Alice laughed her tinkling laugh, "No problems there, I don't particularly like country anyway, only Edward and Emmett like it. Old men!" She laughed, even if she was actually technically older than the both of them. Well the same as Edward in actual age but older physically and older in actual age than Emmett. "Ed Sheeran good then?" She asked me.

"No idea who he is, but sure."

"Well, Ed it is, you will love him, trust me." Of course I would trust her, you were stupid not to, she knew everything.

After the music choice was settled, she pressed a couple of buttons on her computer and the music began to play throughout the room, obviously she had some sort of hidden speaker system. I found that I did like the music, it was relaxing, and the lyrics interesting, leading me to think about life and love and all sorts of things.

Alice quickly ushered me into the bathroom where I was instructed to change into a fluffy purple robe she left for me, it looked much warmer and cosier than hers and fell just under my knees, and we began our day. I thought Alice would dress me in several outfits before choosing one, then spend hours doing my hair and makeup before wanting photos. But today we sat and talked on her bed as she painted my nails, and I painted her toe nails, and we did fun little things. We both had ridiculous looking face masks for a while, and she used all sorts of creams on my face that I was sure cost more than my truck. Alice gave me a haircut, which I needed after not having one for almost a year, and styled it a little differently. I was going to start wearing my hair with a slight side part and shorter layers in the front and it wasn't all one length as the back was longer. It was more sophisticated and grown up than my boring straight cut with a middle part that I had since I was about fourteen.

When we talked, we talked about everything and it was great. I wasn't used to having a girl I could chat with about everything, although I figured I should get used to it as Alice and the rest of the Cullen's were always going to be there. As long as they would change me eventually, I hoped they would. But maybe that had changed since I was no longer with Edward. Maybe I should just leave that train of thought for another time.

"So, any boys caught your eye lately?" Alice asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Uh…" I hesitated, I wanted to talk to Alice my best friend about the tall handsome man who caught my eye, but I didn't want to talk to Alice my crushes ex-wife about him, so I settled for "No. Not really."

"Liar!" She playfully accused, "You can't lie to me, I know everything." She said in a humorous tone.

"Well yes, but he wouldn't ever go for me." I replied honestly.

"I wouldn't be so sure, you never know who some people are into." She replied cryptically.

"Sure, but what about you? Your mate close yet?" I was trying to steer the conversation to somewhere a little less awkward.

"Mhmm," She hummed, "If we continue on our current paths it's about eleven months, but that could change."

"Wow, quite close then, I suppose that's hardly anything for you. What's he like?" I wanted all the gossip about this mysterious mate of Alice's.

"Um, yeah… pretty close." She was hesitant, as if she was worried about my reaction.

"What is it? You can tell me anything you know, your secret is safer with me than anyone else!" I tried to joke with her, but the look on her face told me she was still concerned.

"It's not really much of a secret, Jasper already knows part of it. And I suppose Edward does too. It's just that- I…" She paused, taking an unnecessary breath before continuing. "You see, the thing about my mate… Well, she's going to be great." She spoke quietly, as if worried I would judge her.

"I'm happy for you Alice, I couldn't care less if your mate was male or female, or anything really. I love you Alice, and I want you to be happy. Sorry I assumed your mate was male….it's just that you were married to Jasper and yeah." I finished lamely. I was truly happy for her, and I couldn't have cared less, and I was sorry for assuming before, and slightly hurt she had worried about my reaction.

Alice just pulled me into a hug and held me there for a couple of minutes.

"Thank you!" She whispered as she held me. "Thank you for accepting it, I know everyone will react fine, but telling everyone in your family, who you have known for half a century, including your ex-husband, that you are going to fall madly in love with another woman is a little daunting." She sounded so small, younger than she normally did.

All I could do was hug her back, and gently rub my hand up and down her back, letting her know how much I loved her, and without words trying to tell her that everyone would be fine and accept her and her mate for who they were. That was the thing about the Cullen's, there was nothing any of them could do that would change how everyone else felt about them. The bonds they shared were unbreakable and unconditional. They had all told me stories of how they had slipped, or wrecked a car, or nearly exposed them, or broken a house irreparably, yet the love between them was never effected.

"Am I the first person you've told?" I asked her gently after a while.

"Yeah, Jasper knows that I am attracted to men and women though, he can feel everything I feel after all." She smiled wryly. "And Edward, I'm sure, has caught a glimpse of my thoughts occasionally, but he never questioned me. He is good like that, he waits for people to acknowledge things before he voices anything he overhears."

"Well I am honoured. Now, are you going to give me all the gossip?" I wanted to get back to the easy chatter we had only a few minutes before.

"Well, her name is Bree, and I don't know the exact circumstances of how we meet yet, just that she is young, and not a vampire yet, but will be before I meet her. I think physically she would only be fifteen or sixteen though." And Alice lost herself in a vision, but the happy smile on her face told me it was a good one, probably of Bree.

We spent another hour just chatting and I actually let Alice do my makeup before I decided to ask a little more about vampire mates.

"So how do you know if someone is your mate?"

"It's a little different for every couple, but everyone I've spoken to has said they have this 'pulling' feeling in their chests when their mate isn't nearby, and I don't really know. You just know. You want to be with them with every fibre of your body, and nothing could ever come between you." Alice was unsure as I was, having never been through it.

"What is the 'pulling' thing?" That surly wasn't just a mate thing was it, I felt this strange tugging in my chest fairly often, in fact I was currently feeling a pulling feeling, trying to get me to go somewhere.

"It is this thing that lets you know where your mate is or something. It's to pull you together and allow you to always know where one another is. Rose said it's handy in a fight, she can't always tell where Em is instinctively; she doesn't need to search for him to know he is ok."

"So would it be like a slight pulling in the direction of your mate?" I tried to act casually as I asked this, not getting my hopes up.

"Yep, but because I haven't met my mate yet mine isn't really obvious, it just tells me she is somewhere east. Jasper however, has met his mate and knows who she is, so his is much stronger. He would be able to tell exactly where she is." Why was Alice telling me about Jasper? And what was with the small smile she had right now, it was as if she was encouraging me to ask.

"Alice," I began, not knowing if I should continue. "Don't judge me if I'm wrong, but could Ja-..I mean am I-…" How could I say this? Be brave Bella, just say it really quickly and get it done with. "Is it me? Am I his mate? Jasper I mean…" I trailed off, instantly regretting saying it.

….

**A.N.:** Sorry for the slight cliffy, it was getting too long, but seeing as we all know where this story is going I didn't think you would mind too much.

Sorry it has been a while since I updated, I continued to have a bad week after my last post, and then had writers block. I hope you didn't mind the switch in POV, I think it will go back to Jasper next chapter.

I hope no one hates me for making Alice bi, I just feel like there needs to be more accurate depictions of bisexual characters in stories like this. I myself am bi, and I know I found it hard to identify with any particular group in the past due to not even knowing what bisexuality was. I saw myself as being too gay to call myself straight and but too straight to call myself gay. And I don't think I could be the only one in this situation. This is actually the first time I have told anyone, so yeah. Don't actually know where I am going with this.

Please review, I love receiving them. It's currently Friday night and I won't have another chance to post until at least Tuesday, depending on if I finish my assignment, so sorry for the wait.

Enjoy

xx


	11. Chapter 11

**I Followed Her, and She Led Me to You**

**Chapter 11**

JPOV

I left Emmett in the early hours of the morning after I finished hunting. We hadn't gone far from our house in the end, settling for the Olympic Mountain Range just east of the house after we came across the tracks of a bear; Emmett's favourite. I wasn't as fussed about the bear, I tracked down an elderly mountain lion after leaving the bear for Emmett. Even after seventy years he still managed to hold a grudge against the species that ended his life, even if he had no regrets about where this life has led him. It only took me half an hour to reach home, and that wasn't even travelling at my usual speed, I wanted to think.

Bella was going to be staying with us for the next week while Carlisle, Esme, Rose and Edward were in Alaska holidaying and hunting. If there was ever a good time to make a move on Bella it was now, but I was still concerned about her mental state, she had been quite withdrawn for the last month or so of school, and although she seemed to be better now than she was, I couldn't help but worry that it could all go downhill. I needed to speak with Alice, as awkward as that could possibly be, she would hopefully tell me what to do. I ran faster, eager for Alice's advice, and the house came into view quickly, and I could see Alice sitting in the living room rearranging the large collection of movies.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do." She said knowingly as I entered the back door.

"Why not? I'm worried that I'll fuck everything up." I replied, admitting my fear, something I had only ever done with Alice.

"You won't as long as you let her decide the speed of the relationship." She told me in her annoying, know-it-all voice. "I had a good chat with her today, and I think you need to speak with her soon, the sooner the better. You'll probably be surprised at how long she's been interested."

"Thanks for telling me what to do." I teased, she always told me what to do, even though she always told me she wouldn't.

"Well I didn't do it for you, I did it for Bella, you will be good for her, and she needs someone strong to rely on at the moment."

I sat down next to where Alice was sitting after that, wanting to help re-sort the family's large collection of movies. Edward had moved them around before he left, I think it was out of boredom, but the system he had used was terrible. He placed all of the movies by year, and then his preference within that year. While that was all well and good for his personal music collection, it was infuriating to the rest of us. We often had to do this after Edward got bored. But hey, if it kept him sane who was I to judge.

We worked in companionable silence for well over an hour before Emmett came rushing in the back door demanding to know if Bella was awake and if he could do something with her. He wasn't too pleased when I informed him that it was three in the morning and most humans were still asleep then, and she would probably not appreciate it if he woke her for a video game tournament. Instead I offered to play some sort of shooter game with him, and Alice watched.

….

Later in the afternoon, after a lazy morning spent in the house, I drove Bella to work as she didn't have her death trap of a truck with her and she didn't want to be trusted with any of our cars. But because she wanted someone to take her we had to take the Merc' because today was extremely sunny. In fact Alice said the whole week would be sunny, and it would get hot, almost to the point of setting a new record for hottest temperature in Forks. Bella was excited to have some hot weather again, she missed the weather of Arizona.

I could totally understand that, I often missed the dry heat of Mexico and Texas even though I was incredibly happy with my life here up north. The peace was nice, but I longed to feel the sun on my skin in a way that I just didn't get a chance to often experience, although this week was going to be perfect.

"The only thing I hate about the hot weather is it gets too hard to sleep." Bella commented as I pulled into the parking lot of the outdoor store. "If there's good air conditioning or a fan, then I'm all good, but I'm guessing you don't have any of that in your place, do you?"

"Err, no. We don't sorry. I can go buy a fan or something if you want?" I asked her, annoyed that I hadn't previously thought of it. I pulled into a park near the entrance to the large store.

"No you won't! Don't spend any unnecessary money on me," She insisted, although I didn't think it would be unnecessary, "Any way, this week I'm living with three of icebergs, someone's just going to have to sleep with me I guess." She finished cheekily as she stepped out of the car and quickly into the store before I could reply.

Her emotions were different to what I was used to from Bella. She was feeling playful and slightly embarrassed and a little bit lustful. Usually when people felt like this they were flirting, was she deliberately flirting with me? Was that how she was telling me she was ready? I could go with it, I'll go home and get a few things ready because I had an idea for what to do tonight, a mix of family bonding with Bella and a chance to get close with Bella. And provide her with a cool place to sleep of course.

My plan was already formed before I pulled into the drive at home, and of course by the time I walked into the house Alice had started to move the furniture for me. Or at least she had somehow convinced Emmett to do it for her while she supervised.

"Oohh! Tonight is going to be so fun!" Alice squealed at a pitch I was sure only vampires and small woodland creatures could hear.

"Jesus Alice!" Emmett exclaimed, "Tone it down a few decibels, alright?"

"Fine! I'm just happy things are moving along! Bella is keen, and she's doing exactly what I told her to do!" She snapped back at him.

"Wait, what did you tell her to do?" I asked.

"She needed to flirt with you so you would see she was interested and do something, so now you are, and it's all going to plan." She sounded so unapologetic for meddling. "And I'm not meddling, just helping."

"Well thanks for 'helping', but Bella will be pissed if she finds out you are masterminding everything."

"She won't though, because as far as she knows _I'm_ just being a helpful friend to _her_ and not _you._"

"What exactly did you tell her?" I asked, wary of what Alice may have said about me.

"Just the truth." She assured me.

"The truth? So _you_ told her _she _was _my_ mate? You didn't have that right!" My hands balled up into fists and I clenched my teeth. I needed to control my anger before I started projecting.

"Actually, Bella figured it out and asked me, so don't you start blaming me for anything Jasper Whitlock!"

"Sorry Alice, I just thought you took the meddling too far."

"It's ok, just don't yell at me again or I'll stop helping." She teased me.

"Well, thanks. But is Bella going to like it? My plan for tonight and tomorrow?"

"No worries, and of course she will, and I can't see exactly what is going to happen tomorrow, there is something making my vision a little cloudy, but I can see that the end result is you two being closer."

I could live with that, although I was concerned about what could possibly make her vision cloudy, I trusted Alice and her visions, I knew she would have told me if there was anything to worry about.

…..

Bella loved my plan of course, it all went perfectly and I was giving myself all of the credit, not Alice. When I picked her up from work at seven I had already gone to the local pizza place and ordered her dinner and had it in the car with me. Bella seemed to love the smell of the peperoni pizza and garlic bread, but by the time we were home I felt nauseous from the smell that filled the car. I didn't even know I could feel nauseous.

As we walked inside I monitored Bella's emotions to make sure she handled my surprise well, and I breathed an unnecessary sigh of release as I felt her happiness and positive emotions. She liked it. We had rearranged all of the furniture in the living room by moving all of the chairs against the walls and bringing the mattresses downstairs from Alice's and Emmett's rooms so the living room now resembled one large bed. Alice had of course gone overboard by taking every pillow from around the house and artfully scattering them around the room, leaving everything looking like a comfortable place to sleep. Or what I assumed was a comfortable place to sleep.

"What's all this for?" Bella asked in a small, awed voice.

"You, we thought we would have a movie night and this room is a little cooler than upstairs." I replied.

"Thank you. That sounds great after a long day at work, I had some awful customers today and some dodgy horror movies sound great." She replied, as Alice and Emmett walked into the room from the kitchen carrying cans of drink for Bella and a small bowl of popcorn.

"Party time!" Emmett yelled, scaring Bella slightly as she hadn't seen him before that as she was still focused on the living room.

We spent the next few hours watching the horribly good 'Scream' series which had been dragged on for far too long and was far more comedic than frightening now, and just chatting. It was good, in our little nest of pillows, filled with food and people she loved Bella didn't have anything to worry about and I could feel the weight of the emotional baggage she had been carrying for so long lifted from her shoulders as the night continued.

By about two in the morning Bella had fallen asleep on top of the blankets due to the heat, but about an hour after she fell asleep she became restless, like she was searching for something, and then the talking started.

"Jasper?" She asked, in such a clear voice we thought she had woken. "Hot." She added a minute later.

I understood her unconscious message perfectly, and I moved from the other end of the room where Alice and I were talking to sit with Bella. As soon as I sat next to her she rolled over in her sleep and threw her arm across my waist, clearly trying to pull me to her.

That was possibly one of the best nights in recent memory for me. Laying there with my mate in my arms for a whole night was almost perfection. I thought about many things that night and came to a few conclusions.

One; in the span of a few short months Bella had become the very core of my existence and I knew I could never survive without her in my life in some capacity.

Two; this revelation that I truly loved Bella put her in immense danger, not only because she was too aware of the supernatural world but also because of the constant threat of my past coming back to haunt me.

Three; if this was going to work out, one day Bella would have to become a vampire, and although she had expressed her interest in this future before, the thought that Bella might say she didn't want to become a vampire left me feeling ill.

When Bella awoke midmorning she was mildly confused and slightly embarrassed to be in my arms, but I was still amazed she had slept the whole night with me. She got over the embarrassment pretty quickly and then once I told her about my planned activity for the day she was almost hyperactive with excitement. And of course as I was so close to her, and actually in contact with her, I couldn't stop myself from being ridiculously excited too. And then we both simultaneously realised we were still snuggled together. And were slightly embarrassed.

Luckily Alice saved the day by running in and pulling Bella up to get her ready. Thanks Alice. Alice spent almost an hour getting Bella ready, and I had no idea how. Where we were all going didn't exactly require a lot of clothing, and makeup and hair was just a waste today, it'd just get messed up again soon enough.

….

Once the girls were _finally_ ready I gathered up the small picnic lunch I prepared for Bella, we headed out the back door and into the yard and to the small trail that lead to the river. The Sol Duc River wound its way through our property just north of the house, and during the summer, once all of the snow had melted and cleared away, the river was especially slow. It was a pleasant place to enjoy the sun in private, where prying eyes couldn't witness our abnormalities, and we often spent days in here playing or relaxing.

A little walk along the trail, only five minutes at human pace, Esme had created a grassy garden on either side of the river to give us sit or play our modified versions of sports such as football when we came to the river. I thought this would be the best place to go, other sections of the bank were closer to the house, but I thought Bella would prefer the soft grass to the rocks and moss of the rest of the bank.

"It's so beautiful!" Bella exclaimed as we moved through the trees and onto the grass. And it truly was beautiful today, more so than I had ever seen it. The recent warm weather and wet winter had caused pink, purple and white wild flowers to sprout around the outside of the grass and patches of clover with small pink flowers throughout. The colours were truly amazing and something I had never seen in this little clearing.

We spent some time in the river, the girls mainly floating along the river for a short while before Alice towed Bella back against the current to where Emmett and I were throwing a football at our preferred speed. Bella left the water for a while to eat her lunch and reapply some sunscreen at about one thirty as she was a little chilled from the water, but we all stayed in the river to give her some time alone, we understood she liked time alone, and I could definitely relate to that. Emmett and I kept up our game and Alice decided she wanted to join in.

"Oh, you want to play with us do you?" Emmett asked, his dimples appearing with his mischievous grin.

Then, quick as he could, Emmett grabbed Alice around the waist from where she stood near him and threw her up into the air and caught her again.

"What do you think Jazz? New game with Alice?" He called out, throwing her in the air again.

"Don't you dare drop me!" Alice shrieked, but her emotions gave her away, she was having fun.

When Emmett caught her again she curled herself up into a ball and threw her to me, and obviously I caught her easily and threw her back again. Alice's emotions of pure joy getting to me, and Bella's from on the back of amusement only spurring me on.

"_Stop!"_ Alice yelled as I went to toss her towards Emmett again, obviously having a vision of some sorts.

"What is it?" I asked, placing her in the shallower part of the river where she could stand.

"Our immediate future just disappeared, something is about to happen that I can't see." She spoke quietly, but still loud enough that Bella could hear, obviously not wanting to keep anything from her.

_Shit! _That could be really bad, no future meant danger we couldn't see. I needed to protect them, get Bella to safety, and protect Alice because she was only safe when she could _see_!

"Wait Jasper! It'll all work out fine and I can still see all of us tonight, I just think there is something that is blocking my visions. Could be anything, really." Alice said in a soothing tone, obviously trying to stop me from going into full military mode and panicking.

"Alright, we need to think this through. What could do that? And how long are you blind for?" Emmett spoke up, clearly concerned for his family's safety.

"That's the thing, I'm not blind to everyone, just the four of us, and then it's only until tonight. It's like there's something that is only going to affect us, and it's small scale, I don't think there is any real danger because we are all laughing and smiling later tonight." Alice replied, and everyone's emotions calmed down.

So we were safe, but Alice couldn't see what was happening for a few hours, we were effectively blind. Could there be a gifted vampire coming past that stopped Alice from seeing but it all sorted out fine.

"Should we call the others, ask what they think, or let them know?" Bella asked quietly from the bank where stood.

"Nah, don't think there is anything to worry them about." Emmett cheerfully answered to reassure her.

Bella moved back from the edge of the river where it was a little muddy from our splashing to sit on the grass where she had abandoned her lunch in the slight panic of Alice's lack of vision. As Bella started to lower herself to sit Indian style Alice jumped up and went to move her but Bella had already sat down. And then she gasped in pain and felt a bit panicked.

"Fuck! I think I just sat on a bee and got stung!" Bella told us as she stood up again.

"Are you okay?" I asked, running out of the water and to her side.

"Fine," she laughed, "It isn't too bad, but I do need to go back to the house and need some help getting the stinger out." She admitted, obviously amused about my reaction.

In under a minute I had Bella in the kitchen, Emmett and Alice weren't far behind, they had brought everything back from the river, and I was in the downstairs bathroom looking for one of the first aid kits we had in the house for Bella. I found it quickly and ran back to her where she was trying to see where the stinger was.

Unfortunately for Bella, the stinger was high up on the back of her thigh and out of her sight, sitting just below her board shorts. I hadn't even really noticed what she was wearing before now, I had been too absorbed in conversations and looking at her face, but wow, Alice really knew how to pick great swimwear for Bella. The royal blue triangle bikini top and little blue board shorts looked amazing on her, her slim but soft body filling them out perfectly.

"Earth to Jasper, you helping or not?" Her soft voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Oh, right. What do I do?" I had no idea of what to do about human first aid.

Bella quickly explained how to use a credit card to scrape the stinger out and once I had done this, while ignoring the fact that I was so close to her gorgeous ass, I pulled some ice from the freezer and placed it in a plastic bag and wrapped it in the tea towel for her to put on the sting which had begun to swell quite a lot.

"Is that okay? It looks more red and swollen than I expected." I asked as I helped her to the couch, her leg was apparently too tender to walk properly on.

"I should be fine, I've been stung before and it swelled quite a bit." Bella replied, but she seemed unsure.

"How many times have you been stung before?" Emmett asked.

"Twice, years ago when I was about six. Why?" She replied.

"Sometimes allergies to insect bites and stings can take a few incidences to show, and that amount of swelling looks abnormal. Don't hide it if it feels like its burning or itching, okay?" Emmett was concerned, and he was in a better position than myself or Alice to give this advice having studied pre-med on more than one occasion.

Alice danced back into the room again, I hadn't even noticed she had left, and handed Bella a t-shirt that looked oddly familiar.

"Is that my shirt?" I asked as Bella pulled the plain white t-shirt over her head.

"Yep! Bella has so few nice t-shirts with her and I wouldn't want to ruin one of them because of her still slightly wet bathers, so your shirt seemed like the best way to go." Alice replied cheerfully, but I did have to admit that seeing Bella in my shirt was kind of hot. Or a lot.

My excitement over her attire was short lived however as Bella soon took a turn for the worst, obviously suffering from an allergic reaction.

….

**AN: Thank you all for your patience while I was unable to write due to computer issues.**

**Sorry I left you with a cliff hanger again, I will have the next instalment up within the next few days, I had to cut this chapter shorter because it got so huge, so the next part is already extensively planned and partly written.**

**Thank you again, I hope you still enjoy this story as much as you all seemed to before this little hiatus.**

**Daisy  
>xx<strong>


	12. Chapter 12

**I Followed Her, and She Led Me to You**

**Chapter 12**

It was very clear, very quickly that Bella needed help that we were unable to give ourselves at home. Exactly six minutes after she was stung her whole leg was swollen and her whole thigh was covered in hives that were spreading up towards her back and down her leg. That in itself was concerning, and required treatment, but it became scarier when she began to complain about being nauseous, and when Alice began to help her to the bathroom, only a few steps away, Bella nearly fainted.

"Looks like her blood pressure has dropped. That combined with the nausea and hives is bad, Jasper, I think we need to get her to the hospital." Emmett quietly spoke to me as we could hear Bella vomit.

"Bring the car out to the front, I'll bring Bella." And so I ran into the bathroom where Alice was now helping Bella to rinse her mouth out, and as soon as they were done I picked Bella up into my arms, careful to not put any pressure on the sting site, and ran out to the car where I slid into the back seat, still cradling Bella. I looked at her face and was shocked, her lips had begun to swell and she looked like she was struggling to catch her breath properly.

Once Alice was in the front passenger seat Emmett put his foot down.

We were at the hospital in record time, and Emmett pulled right into Carlisle's reserved parking spot as it was right next to the entrance to the emergency department and under the shade of a large tree. Even in an emergency such as this we needed to be mindful of who may see us or how we could expose ourselves.

Before the car was even fully stopped, let alone off, Alice was at the door where I was sitting, opening it so I could easily carry Bella inside. I walked at the fastest possible human pace into the hospital, and straightaway we caught the attention of the nearest nurse. It wasn't often that the younger Cullen's made an appearance at the hospital, let alone the younger Cullen's wearing very little clothing an carrying a nearly unconscious girl.

"Come right this way." The nurse motioned for us to follow her to the nearest available bed where I gently placed Bella. "What happened?" She asked as I did so.

"This is Bella Swan, she was stung by a bee, we removed the stinger, but she quickly developed the rash and swelling, then nausea, and light-headedness, and is now having breathing difficulties." I spoke quickly, but clearly.

As I was telling the nurse about what had happened a doctor walked through the curtains that surrounded the bed for privacy and quickly listened to her heartbeat with her stethoscope while the nurse took Bella's blood pressure.

"Looks like anaphylaxis to me," The doctor said, "Julia, prepare an epinephrine IV please." The doctor addressed the nurse. "I'm administering a shot of epinephrine now."

And the doctor pushed the needle into Bella's exposed thigh, causing the slightest drop of blood to appear which caused only the slightest tickle in my throat. The nurse had soon set up the IV and pushed the little needle into the crook of Bella's arm and taping it into place. The nurse then moved towards Bella's head where she pulled a large mask over her face for oxygen, and Bella seemed to begin breathing better, not so laboured, which I knew was a sign that the drugs she had been given had begun to work. I moved to stand just to the left of the bed, out of the way of the doctor and the nurses, as a second woman had joined the other nurse.

"Jasper… sorry." Bella spoke quietly, looking at me and reaching weakly towards me with her left hand. Emmett and Alice had moved from out of the emergency department to wait somewhere else, possibly to call Charlie.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, darlin'." I reassured her as I moved a step closer to hold her hand.

Over the next few minutes I answered the doctor's questions about Bella and the allergic reaction as best as I could, but obviously we needed Bella or her father to answer the questions about her medical history.

But mostly I just watched Bella, and used my enhanced senses to monitor her for any changes. I may not have had any training to do with medicine, nor ever had any desire to study it, but I had learnt a little about what was normal for a human by listening to numerous conversations in the house over the years. I could hear that her heart rate was returning to a more normal level, and the smell of her blood was more normal now, although still tainted from the medications, but there wasn't as much of the smell of adrenaline as there was before. Her lips were less swollen now and her breathing had settled back to a completely normal rate. I was finally able to relax a little, so I pulled a chair from where it was behind me and sat down to tell the

"Where's Bella?" I heard a clearly agitated Charlie ask the nurse at the desk, before I heard his heavy footsteps as he ran towards the curtained off bed where Bella lay, and I sat in the little chair.

Charlie threw open the curtains and rushed to his daughters side where he took her hand.

"Bells, you ok?" He quietly asked her.

"Dad?" Bella answered softly in a slightly hoarse voice. "'M okay… Tired." She added softly, as if she were almost asleep. Charlie turned to me for answers instead of trying to get them out of Bella.

"What happened?" He asked me gruffly, but not unkindly. He was worried for his daughter.

"We were at the river behind the house, just swimming, playing, and Bella took a break to sit in the sun and have something to eat and she was stung by a bee. We scrapped the stinger out, but she started to have an allergic reaction so we brought her straight here."

"Thanks for that Jasper. Thanks for saving my little girl." He replied from where he was standing at Bella's other side, where he had taken her other hand.

The nurses soon finished their jobs around Bella and left us with her, telling us to call if anything changed and we sat there in almost silence, the only sound around us was the heart rate monitor that had set up at some point. I couldn't exactly tell when anything had occurred, I had been too distracted by the life or death situation we found ourselves in. It was only another ten minutes after Charlie arrived that Alice and Emmett came back.

"Jasper, I went home quickly to grab some clothes for you," Alice started, and I noticed that she had a purple sundress on over her bikini. "I took it all to Carlisle's office if you want to change there." She added.

"Thanks, I'll go after." I replied, looking back at Bella, who was asleep.

"Come on, you're still in your board shorts and damp, you'll get cold of you stay here in that." She insisted, partly to play human, and I guessed she wanted to speak with me.

"Fine, can you show me the way, I don't remember." I answered, trying to remain human.

"I'll stay with Bella." Emmett spoke quietly as to not disturb her.

Once we reached Carlisle's office, which was exactly where I knew it to be, Alice began to explain that she could see everything again, and had spoken to the rest of the family, who had come up with a theory about her lack of visions.

"So Bella's a shield?" I repeated.

"Yeah, which makes sense considering how Edward never heard any of her thoughts. And we think, and this could be wrong, but in the high adrenaline situation of the allergic reaction, her shield exploded from a mental one to a physical one. Blocking me, and possibly you as well." Alice elaborated.

"How'd they come up with that whole theory in such a short time?"

"They spoke to Eleazar, and he said it was fairly common in humans that display gifts to have stronger reactions during times of increased stress. And given what we already knew about Bella having some sort of gift, it makes sense."

It did make sense, and now that I thought about it I hadn't felt any strong emotions from Bella while we were in the car or the hospital, I hadn't thought much of it at the time, but it became obvious now. I should have felt her fear, probably terror actually, and yet there was nothing.

I quickly changed into the clean dry shorts and t-shirt Alice had brought for me and quickly made my way back to where Bella was in the emergency department. It had only been ten or so minutes since Alice came to collect me, yet by the time I was back Bella was sitting up in her bed, looking almost back to normal, except for the IV and the slightly off look to her skin. You wouldn't know otherwise that she had been merely minutes from death half an hour ago.

We sat around the bed in the emergency department for another hour or so, talking and relaxing after the stress, before the two nurses from before came in to prepare Bella to move to another room for overnight observation. The doctor was concerned that Bella may still have some complications, and so insisted that Bella stay overnight. Bella was of course less than thrilled that she would have to stay here, but none of us would let her argue about it as she had terrified us all so much.

Luckily, when Bella was moved it was into a private room as Forks Hospital was mostly private rooms, or rooms with only two beds, but Bella had a room to herself. Because of this, and our influence over the staff due to Carlisle's high standing, no one told us to leave or that there were too many people in the room.

Alice and Emmett were the first to leave at nine thirty under the guise of calling everyone before it was too late and informing them of what had happened and how Bella was doing now, and I pretended to leave with them as I was sure Charlie would be unhappy with me staying here overnight. I just sat in Carlisle's office down the hallway and waited for Charlie to leave. Of course I told Bella I would be back under the guise of giving her a good bye hug. Charlie followed half an hour later as he had work early the next morning.

The nurse followed me back into the room after Charlie left, giving me a reproachful look as she did so, I guessed she was about to kick me out for the night, but of course I would fight that. I would stay with my Bella.

"He's staying." Bella quietly but fiercely told the nurse as we entered the room. The looks that this poor nurse received from the two of clearly swayed her decision to let me stay.

"Alright then." The tried nurse answered as she looked over Bella. "Doctor Adams wants me to remove the IV, press the call button if you need anything or experience any symptoms during the night. Someone will be in to check you early tomorrow and then you'll be able to go home. Make sure you get some rest."

"Thank you." Bella genuinely responded as the nurse took out the IV and left the room. As soon as the door to the room closed Bella shuffled over to the far side of her bed and patted the spot next to her. "Come here Jasper. We have some things to discuss and I guess this is the most private place we're going to get." She spoke quietly, knowing I could hear her perfectly.

I was at her bed in less than a second and sat beside her.

"Lay down, Jazz, it's still too hot to sleep." She quietly joked with me, we both knew that she didn't just want me there because of the temperature, but still I gently laid down and she snuggled up against my right side, her head resting on my shoulder and her left hand resting gently on my chest.

"What's on your mind Darlin'?" I asked after a minute of comfortable silence.

"You." She whispered back, almost as if she didn't want me to hear it.

"Me? Now why would I be on your mind?" I paused for a moment, "Did you figure it out?" Hopefully she understood.

"Of course I did!" She responded with mock irritation, "I may not have a super vampire brain but I do have above average intelligence." She laughed, the sweet sound filling the room quietly. "And Alice helped a little." She quietly added.

"I know, she told me too when I came back from hunting the other night." I gently turned to lay on my right side so we would be able to look at each other more easily.

"How long have you known, exactly?" She questioned, obviously annoyed that I may have known for a long time and not told her, Bella liked to know what was happening.

"I knew for sure the night of prom, but instinctually I knew since Phoenix." I told her, holding my breath as I waited for her to gather her thoughts. "I did want to tell you earlier," I added, "But with you only just breaking up with Edward, and being so badly injured and everything else that was happening I wanted to wait until things were easier." I hoped like hell she would understand this and not be mad at me for withholding this.

"Thank you, until the other day I don't think I would have handled it very well. But I do think that I did know instinctually for quite a while, maybe since Phoenix or just after anyway." She seemed hesitant then, but I finally took another breath, relieved she wasn't resentful. "So what now?" She added after a minute.

"Whatever you want. It's up to you, I don't want to force you into anything you don't want." I answered sincerely as I brought my left hand up to sweep some of her hair off of her face and tuck it behind her ear. As I did this she grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes with her beautiful chocolate ones.

"No it's not all up to me. You are one half of this so we are going to be mature adults about this and be equals." She was tenacious when she wanted something.

"Technically you're not an adult." I teased her, chuckling, thankful when she laughed as well.

"Well I'm going to act like one. So, where do we go from here? We both know that we're soul mates basically, but at the same time I don't want to rush into this and be together because of it, I want to build a relationship with you and see where it goes. Is that ok?" She was so nervous, unsure of my reaction.

"That sounds perfect to me, exactly what I want." I answered stroking her cheek lightly with my left hand again, like when I swept her hair away from her face only minutes ago.

"Alright then. Let's date, like normal, human teenagers do. Go to a movie, sneak around our parents- well Charlie anyway- and make the most of being _normal_ in this abnormal situation." Bella sounded so excited for this chance of normality that I couldn't help but feel excited for it as well.

"I better practice being a normal human then." I joked with her. "But that sounds great, as soon as you are out of here we can get started on being normal human teenagers. But you know, this isn't the most abnormal situation for me, its normal for a vampire to find their mate, you know."

"Yeah, but I'm not a vampire yet, am I?" She laughed. "Humans usually don't find their soul mate like this."

"You still want to be a vampire?" I questioned, none of us had thought she would after seeing the destruction vampire could cause after the incident with James.

"Of course, but not for a few years, unless I'm dying. But definitely one day. Maybe when I'm nineteen or twenty and the same age as you." She answered.

"That's great. But Bella, seeing as we're _dating_ now," I made an odd sort of face when I said the word to illustrate how foreign that was for me as a vampire, "can I kiss you?" To which she responded to by slightly biting her lower lip and nodding while continuing to look into my eyes.

In that moment I don't think I had ever seen someone look so beautiful. Her big, brown eyes felt as if they were gazing directly into my soul, her cheeks were slightly flushed, almost as if she were too embarrassed to have asked for a kiss herself, and her gorgeous, full lips pated ever so slightly once she released her bottom lip from her teeth. I gently cupped her cheek in my left hand, amazed by the warmth of her skin, and took a deep breath through my nose to be certain her blood wasn't going to temp me. When I was sure of my control I slowly leaned in towards her, and she met me half way and my stone cold, hard lips met her warm, soft, human lips.

I had kissed a number of people in my long life. There were human girls in my human life I was sure, then Maria, and a couple of other women in the newborn armies, and then Alice. But none of those numerous kisses could compare to the one I was experiencing right now. I thought all of this in less than half a second before I stopped consciously thinking so I could just enjoy this moment with Bella.

Her soft lips yielded to mine as soon as they touched, and moulded themselves to mine, but that was to be expected I was sure, to Bella it must have felt like she was kissing a living stone. But she was enjoying it. Her arm reached over my shoulder and she tangled her slender fingers into the back of my hair as I deepened the kiss. The taste of Bella was like nothing I had ever experienced, there was the unmistakeable taste of _her_ which was exactly how her blood smelt, only more subtle, muted. She was sweet and floral, the fuchsia was unmistakable, there was also strawberries there, and not so pleasantly I could taste the mint from her toothpaste. While it may have been a desirable taste to humans, it was so unnatural to me. It wasn't overpowering like I thought it might be though, just a slightly unpleasant background scent, or taste rather.

Our kiss ended too quickly for me, although Bella was panting and her heart rate was accelerated, obviously she needed to breath regularly and kissing wasn't the easiest way to breathe for a human.

"You alright?" I asked quietly.

"Amazing. But happy I'm not on a heart rate monitor anymore, or the nurses might have come running!" She laughed, and I joined in. My deep bass laugh and her higher mezzo-soprano laugh melding together musically.

"That was the best kiss I have ever experienced." I told her quietly as our laughs died down and I turned slightly to lay in my back.

"Me too." Bella responded as she moved in to snuggle against my side again. "Stay here and don't move please. This is exactly how I want to sleep." She added sleepily, the fatigue rolling off of her in waves, as if all the events of the day were catching up with her.

"I won't move. Go to sleep my beautiful Bella." I whispered as she closed her eyes, succumbing to sleep after a long and eventful day. First she woke up in my arms, then there was the river, then the near death experience, and then we talked, and I guess she was my girlfriend now, and we had our first kiss, and now she was once again asleep in my arms.

…

**A.N.:** Thank you for reading, please leave a review with your opinions. So finally their together! Yay! Thanks for being patient, I didn't want to rush into this from the start. Hope you enjoyed, there is more to come soon.

If there are any inaccuracies with the medical side of things, sorry, I am used to a very different healthcare system so there might be differences there, and I have never experienced a life threatening allergic reaction, although I am allergic to bees, like I made Bella, but that was just because it was convenient to make Bella allergic to bees and not know rather than have a food she had never been exposed to. All of this will be important later in the story. _Hint, hint._ If anyone can guess what happens later in the story you might win something, like an extra little scene I'll send just to you. Just send me your ideas or leave them in a review and I'll respond if you get it right.

Thanks,  
>Daisy<br>xx


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